Who are you?
by crazyinpink
Summary: This is it. The end.
1. Chapter 1

AN: Well... this is the first fanfic I ever published, so I'm not sure about the rating, the genre and everything else. My English sucks, just try to ignore it...

Danny opened his locker and let out an exhausted sigh, he had worked an outisde scene all day and he couldn't feel his feet anymore because it had been snowing for 2 days now.

He really looked forward a hot shower and an evening in front of the TV or just going to bed, he wasn't sure yet.

But as usually fate wasn't on his side and he let out a small curse as he saw Mac walking towards the break room.

For a brief moment he considered disappearing before Mac could find him, but he didn't look forward to another speech of Mac about responsibilitys and how important the job was, what he really knew, so he decided against it.

Mac entered the breakroom: "Danny I'm sorry, I know you worked all day, but I need your help with a scene."

_Wow Mac was actually apologicing for making him work longer, that's knew _thouht Danny._ Is that a good thing? Should I feel worried?_

"I would ask Aidan or Stella, but Aidan's in court and it's Stellas day off and I can't seem to reach her."

_There goes my shower, lucky Stella probably turned her pager and cell off, I would have too._

"I meet you at the SVU", said Mac leaving the breakroom.

Resigining to his fate, Danny took his kit and followed Mac.

New York seemed nice and peaceful, the snow was glicering, covering the normally dirty streets, even the people seemed calmer not in the usual rush.

He saw a few kids playing in the snow, throwing snow balls at each other.

Their faces were red from the cold and their eyes lighted with joy, he couldn't help but smile.

_Such a nice day and what am I doing? Working_, the smile that had creeped on his face dissapeared, when he thought about what he was about to encounter. Another day another crime, so many death. Sometimes he just couldn't take it anymore.

"We are here" said Mac interrupting Dannys thoughts.

They had arrived at central park.

The yellow crime scene tape was wrapped around some trees.

Behind it was the usual crowd of people gathering curious to know what had happend.

He noticed the police officer coming towards him and flashed his badge.

There was a young woman with a long black coat and a bright blue scarf, she was shaking and crying, an other officer was talking to her asking her something and she shook her head, clasping her hand in front of her mouth.

If Mac would have to guess this was the person who found the body.

He looked at the groud, there were footprint everywhere from the police and other people, but luckily there weren't much in the direction of the body.

Maybe they were able to find some shoeprints of the killer.

Danny seemed to be thinking the same thing.

"Who went to the body?" he asked the scene officer.

"Just the lady who found the body", he indicated to the woman Mac pictured as the person who found the body ealier, "and the first officer on the scene."

"We'll need footprint from both of them. So what do we know about the victim?"

"White female, no ID yet."

"OK", said Mac and walked towards where he presumed the body was.

He looked at the footprints, there were now 4 sets visible.

But only 3 came back in this direction.

The fourth set Mac guessed belonged to the victim, he also noticed something else the 4th set was barefooted.

The footprints seemed smeared as if someone halfdragged the person, which was probably true.

He followed the prints, looking at the other two sets, one definetly belonged to a woman, so he guessed it belonged to the woman who found the body.

The other two belonged to the officer and the killer.

He guessed the slightly larger one belonged to the killer, because the prints always seemed near the victim, but he would know for sure, when he got the prints of the officer for elimination.

He concentrated on everything else that could be possible evidence.

Then his gace fell on the victim.

The body lay on the side the half covered with snow. The woman only wore a short violet nightgrow. Her legs and arms were covered in bruises.

Her hands were reaching to her throat. The snow around her coloured in red.

But all these facts didn't register in Mac's mind.

The only thing he noticed were the long chestnut brown curls, covering the face of the woman. Chestnut brown curls, smeared with blood.

He would have regonized this hair everywhere.

"Stella..."

TBC

AN2: If anyone wants me to continue, I would be more than happy for a beta reader! What else... I would love to get reviews! Just say what you think...


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Ok here is the second part! Enjoy!

It couldn't be, it wasn't possible! Thought Mac this wasn't his Stella.

His Stella... Mac paused.

Since when had he started thinking of her as his?

He didn't know, but he realised that he couldn't think of her as anything else. His Stella...

He was sure Stella was fine, probably enjoying her first day off in weeks.

"It can't be her", Mac pleaded.

The officer stared at them not realizing what was happening.

Mac snapped back to reality trying to pull himself together, he slowly walked towards the victim and knelt down beside her carefully so as not to disturb the evidence.

He closed his eyes trying to control his breathing once again praying it was just a bad dream.

But when he opened them again, nothing had changed.

He heard a gasp behind him, but he couldn't bring himself to tear his gaze away from the body, from her body.

He didn't seem to notice the tears that began to form in his eyes, his mind was blank.

His mind seemed stuck at one thought.

_This is wrong! It's nothing but a bad dream. Please let me wake up! Stella isn't dead! She can't, she wouldn't leave me! Please, I can't go on without her! I need her!_

He looked down at her familiar face, seeing the horrified look in her beautiful eyes, he knew his praying hadn't been heard, his Stella was dead.

Danny had seen his fair share of bodies, he really thought nothing

could shock him anymore.

He had seen burn victims, skeletons, raped and mutilated women, dead children, but nothing had prepared him for this.

Seeing his co-worker and friend lying there, dead, he was proven

different.

Her bruised and lifeless body covered in her own blood, but what shocked him most were her eyes.

The pleading frightened look he had never seen in Stella eyes before.

But looking at her gaping neck wound, he knew her pleading hadn't been heard.

How could someone do that?

Someone just slit her throat and left her there to

die.

He couldn't take it anymore.

Feeling ill he turned away running from the crime scene to empty his stomach contents in the snow.

He closed his eyes, but instead of calming him down he saw her eyes

again her body covered in her own blood and he had to throw up again.

Stella couldn't be dead Danny didn't want to believe that, but his rational brain told him differently.

You have to calm down! Focus! If Stella was here he knew she would tell him exactly that.

But she isn't here! She's dead! Someone killed her!

What kind of sicko would kill her?

In this moment his feelings changed and he wanted nothing more than kill whoever did this.

Aiden had just finished her court testimony, when her cell rang.

She looked down at her caller ID even though she already had a good idea who it was.

Like Danny she wasn't very fond of the idea of working in the cold. And she had a sinking feeling that's exactly what she would be doing shortly.

"Aiden Burn", she answered grumpily.

"Aiden I need you at...a scene", Mac's voice was shaking.

"What happened?" She was concerned, his voice seemed different somehow, kind of empty, she had never heard him sounding like this before.

"It's...it's...Stella, I need you at central park ASAP", with that he

hung up.

Aiden put her phone down. What the hell was that? Stella? What happened with Stella? It was her day-off right?

Aiden walked to her car and drove towards central park. Wondering what happened that made Mac sound so bad?

Arriving at the crimes scene she found an awfully pale looking Danny.

"You wanna do the victim or footprints or the rest?", asked Danny,

without any kind of greeting.

"What the hell happened here?"

"Well more like footprints or rest, I think Mac is taking the body...", Danny said ignoring her question. He sounded on the edge like he was about to explode any second.

"Danny! Talk to me! What the hell happened!", demanded Aiden in a slightly angry voice.

Why was everyone avoiding her questions?

"She's dead alright? Stella's dead! Is that what you wanted to hear!

Cause it's the fucking truth!", screamed Danny at her, then grabbed the

equipment to work on the footprints and stormed off leaving a shocked Aiden behind.

Could it really be?

Stella and her had recently started to becoming friends or at least

that's what Aiden thought.

Not so long ago they couldn't even be in the same room without bitching at each other, but they had finally started to get along.

They sometimes went out for drinks after work and talked about all the stupid things like shopping and office rumors.

She walked in the direction in which Danny had stormed off and found

him working on some footprints in the snow, he had already started marking the different sets in different colours.

She followed the footprints until she found Mac and the victim.

Mac looked exactly like his voice had sounded on the phone earlier,

awful and she could see traces of tears on his face.

A sinking feeling hit her as she started to realise Danny had told the truth.

She had never seen Mac cry before, then she looked down at the body and instead of getting ill like Danny or getting as emotional as Mac, she felt numb. She opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out.

When Danny had told her the victim was Stella, she was shocked, but a

part of her brain had just turned it down as a joke, even though she knew Danny wouldn't make jokes about something as serious as this.

Now seeing Stella there dead, she couldn't deny it anymore, but she

still tried to.

Without speaking a word she turned away, trying to shake the horrible

picture of her mind and determined to do her job.

Aiden took some photos of the crowd, that was still gathered behind the crime scene tape.

Then she made her way over to the woman who found the body.

She was shaking, her face was pale.

Her short blond hair kept falling into her face everytime she turned her head.

"Hi, my name is Aiden Burn, I'm with the crime lab, can I ask you some questions?", asked Aiden, running completely on autopilot.

The woman looked up at her with scared blue eyes and nodded.

"What's your name?"

"Katy Freeling", her voice was barely above a whisper.

"And you were the one who found... the body?"

That's Stella! Not a body! How could she talk about her friends like that?

Katy just nodded, she seemed like a small child, even though her look

told Aiden she was at least 20 years old.

"Can you tell me what happend?", asked Aiden.

"I was... I was walking home from work. My boyfriends always told me I shouldn't do that, walking home alone, maybe I should have listened", a little ironic smile appeared on her face just to disappear seconds later when she began shaking again.

"And then I found her, she was just lying there and I didn't know what to do..."

"Did you notice anything strange or another person?"

She just shook her head and started sobbing tears running down her

cheeks.

Aiden just started at her for a moment then she reached out and

carefully touched her arm.

"Please, can I go now?", she asked so quiet, Aiden nearly missed it.

"Yeah sure", murmured Aiden, she didn't even notice as Katy Freeling disappeared, she just kept staring into space.

AN2: Thank you guys for your reviews! And thanks a lot to fruitbat00 for reading beta!


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Here's the fourth part, sorry it took a bit longer, but I didn't have time to write before the weekend, because my Math teacher has this wierd fantasy that I'm supposed to pay attention instead of writing fanfics... Don't know where he got that from. Anyway enjoy!

Aiden, Danny, Flack and Mac were all sitting in Mac's office.

Their shift had ended hours ago, in fact their new shift was about to start but no one had even thought about going home.

They were gathered to compare what they found out.

All of them looked bad, understandably, but Mac looked by far the worst.

His eyes were bloodshot and his face pale, the last time he had eaten was before the case had started and like everyone else he was running on pure caffeine.

"Ok, tell me we have something" demanded Mac walking over to the coffee-machine to get himself another pot.

"Well I looked at everyone who would have a grudge against her, criminals she put behind bars and recently got out, that kind of stuff, but I came up empty, nothing seems to fit", started Flack.

Mac just nodded definitely not happy with what he was hearing.

"I looked into the footprints. We got good shoe prints of the killer, but I ran them through the data base and came up empty, which means our computer never heard of this shoe. So all we know is that the killer has two normal big feet."

"Like almost every other person in New York. Any good news?" asked Mac.

"Well if we found the shoe we could prove it was the shoe of the killer."

Mac groaned.

_This isn't possible! They solved all these cases and when it matters most, there isn't a fucking clue!_

"Aiden. What about you?" he hoped she had found something that could help them.

"Well I finished with the nightgown for you, there wasn't much to find since everything was wet, but I found... sperm", Aiden froze as if she had just discovered the meaning of what she was saying. She shivered.

"I sent it off to DNA."

_Stella was raped? No! That wasn't proven yet! The sperm could have gotten there another way! Like what? It flew there?_

_Oh my god! Wasn't it enough that someone killed her, slit her throat? _

Mac looked down into his coffee, as if it held the answer to all questions.

It took all of his self-control to not throw something at his office window and even more strength to keep from crying, he couldn't bear the thought of Stella being raped, it was just too much for him.

Aiden stood in the middle of the office, what had she done?

_You didn't do anything! _Her conscience tried to tell her…

But looking at Mac, who seemed to be stuck somewhere far from reality and Danny, who was clutching his coffee mug so hard it was about to bust any minute, she felt like this was her fault.

A loud bang yanked her out of her thoughts. Looking up she saw Flack holding his hand. He had hit the wall so hard that one of Mac's pictures had fallen down.

Aiden looked at Mac for some kind of reaction to this but he didn't even seem to notice.

Poor Mac! This hit him hard. Aiden knew Stella and Mac were close; they helped each other through everything.

When Claire had died, Stella helped him the best she could, no one could get through to him back then, beside her.

The two of them had some kind of strong bond between them, they had the ability to talk purely with glances, and sometimes it was almost as if they could read each others thoughts.

"They would have been a cute couple", thought Aiden.

A sad smile appeared on her face.

_It wasn't fair! It wasn't fucking fair!_

The silence which lay over the office was interrupted when Sheldon Hawkes entered the office.

"Hi everyone", he greeted, but his voice didn't sound cheerful at all. He looked just as horrible as everyone else.

_Join the club!_ thought Danny.

"I finished ... the autopsy."

He had done so many autopsies in his life.

_But it's different if you know the person you are cutting open._

He had seen Stella lying on the metal slab naked and he wanted nothing more than to look away and cover her.

He felt ashamed of himself; this was wrong, that wasn't something he should see.

He slit her skin open, like he was supposed to, but it didn't feel like it usually did.

To him she was still Stella, in his mind he saw her standing next to him, talking about some results of her case or just joking around.

She wasn't some anonymous body, she was a person he knew, and it didn't matter the slightest if she was dead or alive.

Seeing her blood coming from the cut he made, he felt like he was hurting her, invading her privacy, violating her, he felt like a criminal.

Of course there wasn't much blood, because the blood flow through her body had stopped hours ago, but it was enough for to make him turn away and considering just running out of the room.

"What did you find?" asked Mac.

_Do you really want to know?_

The little voice in his head had a point, could he stand knowing what Stella had went through before her death?

"Well COD was... the obvious... she bled out, didn't take more than 5 min", Sheldon had trouble speaking.

"TOD was around 4 in the morning. Further, I found force trauma to her head, two broken ribs and other bruises caused most likely by a fist..."

"She was beaten up?" asked Flack.

"Yes and I also found out... that she had sex shortly before she was killed..."

"Rape?" _Oh my god, did you really have to ask that?_ thought Mac.

But he had to know, he had to know the truth, even if it was just so he could nail the bastard who did that.

"It's hard to tell, it could have been that she wanted it too, but since it was very shortly before her death, I presume it was with her killer and I doubt Stella would have sex with the man who was about to kill her..."

_Stop babbling, Sheldon; you are just making it worse for everyone!_

"We have to take a look at Stella's apartment", said Danny, he didn't like the thought of going through her things, but they had to.

"Yeah, we are going to do it in an about an hour", said Mac.

"Has anyone notified her family?" asked Aiden suddenly.

It hadn't even occurred to her before, but seeing the people here, she considered her family, she suddenly thought about Stella's.

Danny, Sheldon and Don looked at her with surprised looks, obviously no one had thought about that yet.

Then she looked at Mac, he finally looked up from his coffee.

"There isn't anyone to notify."

"There has to be someone", said Sheldon, "even if she doesn't get along with her family, I think they want to know and besides who's going to prepare the funeral and all, if not her family?"

"I am, she talked to me about it a while ago."

It was true, a few months ago after the case where a police officer was shot to death, she came to him.

First he thought she was just a bit freaked, about the case, but she had been serious.

"She doesn't have a family, she grew up in an orphanage, never knowing her parents..."

A tear made his way down his cheek, but he quickly wiped it away.

No, he wouldn't cry again, he wouldn't, not with everyone staring at him.

Danny kept staring at Mac. _Stella grew up in an orphanage..._

He had never known that, sure he noticed she never talked about her family or her childhood, but he never thought anything of it.

Silence had engulfed the office again, everyone processing this new information.

_Did they know Stella after all?_

"Wow, what the hell is going on here? You all look like someone died!"

Mac's head shot up, he knew this voice.

_No, no, this isn't possible, your mind is playing tricks on you! You are going crazy!_

Standing in the door to his office was Stella.

AN2: Thanks to my (other) beta Caroline! And thank you guys for the reviews!

Kate K, it wasn't on purpose that I didn't bring Flack in til know...


	4. Chapter 4

AN: OK, here's the next chapter! Sorry it took me so long!

_**Chapter Four**_

"What's going on?", asked Stella.

"Why are you looking at me like you have just seen a ghost?"

"Stella?" Mac stood up walking towards her.

_You are crazy! This can't be real! She's dead, your mind is playing tricks on you!_

_But she looks so real! This can't be my imagination! Please don't let it be my imagination! It's her I know it!_

Stella looked at him strangely as he approached, but he didn't care.

Reaching out he pulled her into his arms hugging her closely, breathing in her scent.

_She's alive!_

He never wanted to let her go, afraid that if he did she might leave again, afraid he would wake up finding out this was his imagintaion after all.

Stella was confused, but still she couldn't help the smile that crept onto her face.

It felt felt so good to have Macs arms wrapped around her and after she overcame her shock about Mac showing public affection, she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him back.

"I had just one free day, I really can't leave you alone. What did you do? Give him drugs?"

Mac finally let go of her. He tried his best to hide how embarassed he was by his actions.

Stella now had the chance to take a look at Mac and noticed how tired he looked.

His beautiful green eyes were bloodshot.

Something bad had happend that made Mac look and act this way, she just didn't know what.

She looked around the room at the rest of her collegues and had a chance to look at everybodys appereance.

"What happend? You guys look like hell", Stella said half joking.

"You're alive...", was all Aiden could manage.

"Yes...", said Stella looking at Aiden slightly doubtful, she raised her hand to her neck as if to feel for a pulse, "definetly alive. So could someone please tell me what's going on?"

"But you are... were dead" , stuttered Danny, somewhat confused.

"What is this? April fools? Or did you all take drugs? I'm alive stop acting like idiots!"

Stellas confusion increased a few minutes later, when they were all standing in the morgue.

_What the hell are we doing in the here?This is stupid! I should have stayed in bed this morning! _

Stella looked at Hawkes who was opening one of the freezers.

Mac looked at the body still covered with the white sheet.

He had half expected to find the freezer empty now that Stella was standing beside him alive.

Hawkes looked at Stella for a moment as if to ask for her permission, but she kept staring at the body.

Even though she had no idea what was happening or what she would see under this sheet, she knew it wouldn't be good.

Sheldon carefully pulled the sheet back.

"Oh my god!" Stella looked down at the body of the woman.

Her face, the shape of her nose, her lips and her hair.

_She looks like me! Exactly like me! This woman looks like me! She is me!_

_This is some wierd dream! This isn't happening!_

_The eyes, green, the same shape and colour as mine._

She looked so scared. Stella shivered it was like she was looking at her own reflection.

_That's so horrible! Who would do something like this... to me, to her..._

Stella unconsciously reached up and touched her throat as if she exspected it to be slit.

_Stop it, stop it! This isn't me! It isn't! It can't be me! I'm alive, I'm alive, I'm alive..._

Mac had promised himself he wouldn't look at the body again, he didn't know if he could take it, so instead he kept looking at Stella.

He still coulnd't believe she was standing there, it seemed like a dream come true.

_His Stella was alive, she wouldn't leave! She was here! He wouldn't let her out of his sight ever again!_

He sudied her face. She looked confused and kind of lost.

She was beautiful. Of course he had noticed that before. But now it was different, the thought of her not being here made everything so much more real.

He had just realised how much she really meant to him.

As much as he told himself he wouldn't look at the body again, when Hawkes drew back the white sheet, he couldn't help himself.

He felt a little bit better, knowing that it wasn't Stella, but the image of the body lying there on the table in front of him still shocked him.

_It's so scary how much they look alike!_ , thought Danny.

Knowing it wasn't Stella, Aiden now noticed that even though they looked so similar, there were a few differences, for example Stella's hair was a bit longer.

The body also had a little scar on her face above her right eyebrow.

Flack heard a gasp beside him and looked up at Stella.

Mac noticed how pale she suddenly looked and he didn't know what to do about it.

Her expression had gone from confused to somewhat shocked.

Mac wasn't good with situations like this, did she want to be left alone or was he supposed to reach out to offer her some kind of comfort?

_She...me...she...me...me...she...she's dead...I'm not..._

Stella couldn't take it anymore, she turned around and just ran.

Out of the morge out of the building.

"Stella!", She could here Mac calling after her, but she didn't listen or didn't want to listen.

All she wanted was to get away.

Mac ran after her, but when he ran out onto the street she was nowhere in sight.

_Where the hell did she go? _

"Have you seen a woman, she's a bit smaller than me with chestnut brown curls? She just came out of this building!", asked Mac a group of tourists, who where standing there discussing the architecture of the building.

"Where the hell did they go?", asked Hawkes.

It had been half an hour since Stella had ran from the morgue with Mac running after her.

They had followed after Mac, but he had just dissapeared and they decided it wouldn't do any good to just run in one direction.

"No idea. What are we supposed to do?", asked Danny.

"OK. Mac is probably taking care of Stella, so we don't have to worry about that.

Hawkes we need the prints of the victim, Danny you run them through AFIS maybe something comes up and Aiden I want you to look through the evidence agian, maybe you'll find something we can use to identify her, I will look through missing persons files, maybe I'll find something, cause afterall we have a case and we know have a unidentified victim", ordered Flack, taking control.

She was breathing fast, her lungs hurt and her legs were like jelly, but she just keep running.

Suddenly her foot got caught in something and she stumbled.

She fell forward her knees hitting the ground, she tried to catch herself which only resulted in getting her hands torn from the pavement.

Somehow the pain brought her back to reality.

She looked around. She didn't recongnized any of the building around here.

_Great Stella, you have no idea where you are!_

The streets were empty and dirty.

_Why the hell did she run here? _

Her breathing was still way to fast, but she tried getting up.

This place frightened her and everytime she closed her eyes she saw the victims face, her face...

Getting up wasn't that easy and when she put weight on her right foot, a sharp pain shoot through her leg.

_Great, just perfect, stuck somewhere with no idea where I am and I can't walk properly. Life is great..._

Her leg was hurting so much, she could barely stand.

She felt like her legs were about to give out any minute, but she had to get back.

So she started walking as best as she could in the direction she came from hoping that she would get somehwere she knew or find a phone or a cab.

AN: Thanks you for the reviews, you are great! And thanks so to fruitbat00 for beta reading this chapter!

scrimshaw89 Hope you didn't explode yet!

Volonta forte Sorry, hope your family didn't mind!

littlesheep I might be crazy, but not that crazy! I'm from Germany, means bad English teacher, syncronised TV, to make it short: It sucks!

Sorry I couldn't answer all of your reviews, I try next time!


	5. Chapter 5

_**AN: Sorry it took me so long! Enjoy! **_

**_Chapter Five_**

Mac was walking down the street in search of Stella. It was freezing cold and he was grateful for his jacket.

_Where the hell is she? What was she thinking just running away? _

All kind of horrible scenarios were playing in his mind.

He had no idea where he was going, and moreover why he was going there. He was just hoping that luck was on his side and that he would find her.

He spotted a figure in the crowded street._ That's her! His mind screamed at him _He ran toward the woman, just to discover that when she turned around she didn't look like Stella at all.

_What the hell Mac? Are you loosing your mind? This is stupid!_

He was starting to lose his hope of finding her.

_You can't think like that! You can't just give up! Who knows what could happen to her in her vulnerable state_?

_Vulnerable? Stella would kill you for just thinking that. _

He had to smile,_ yep she would definetly kill him._

So he kept on walking. He couldn't believe his luck when after what seemed to him like an eternity he finally spotted her.

He quickened his pace and finally caught up with her.

She was limping and looked worn out. He could see she was freezing. Her face was wet with tears and he could see crusted blood on her hands.

He resisted the urge to wrap her in his arms. Instead he settled on giving her his jacket and calling a cab.

Stella had never been so happy to see someone in all her life or at least it seemed like it to her.

She felt so tired and not to mention cold. When she had started running, and even after she stopped hadn't noticed how cold it actually was, but on the way back she had started shivering from the cold.

It wasn't exactly a bad thing, because it helped her not to think about the woman in the morgue, but as she kept on walking she saw flashes of herself lying next to the woman frozen to death.

_Why can't I stop seeing her face? I don't even now her name! _

She kept telling herself that it shouldn't affect her so much, but she had still started crying.

_Look at yourself? Crying over a woman you never met! _

But yet she felt so close to her, like she had known her all her life.

She watched as Mac walked towards her, he looked concerned and worried. He took of his jacket and wrapped it around her.

_It feels so warm and nice. I'm wearing Mac's jacket! _

She smiled happy.

"Where the hell have you been?", he asked his worry turning to anger in a split second.

_I'm worried about her! Why can't she understand that? _

"I don't know", she answered truthfully, but her voice sounded weak.

Upon hearing her voice his worry was back. "Let's get you home", he said.

On every other day she would have been tempted to at least hit him, for suggesting she needed help, but not today. Today she felt grateful.

She stumbled through her front door, Mac following closely behind her. He had hailed them a cab, because he had the slight advantage that a) he knew where they were, b) he had a cell to actually call a cab and c) the money to pay the cab.

"Thanks", said Stella.

"Anytime", Mac answered as he closed the door behind them.

"I think I'm going to get a hot shower now", She turned from his concerned gaze and without waiting for a reply she walked down the hall into the bathroom closing the door behind her.

She locked the door behind herself and slid to the floor hugging her knees.

A few minutes before she had been so grateful for company but now she wanted to be alone. She shivered, whether it was because of the cold or of the memories she didn't know.

_Why is her face haunting me? Why can't I let go?_

She remembered how about 8 hours ago she had been in this room, getting ready for work, standing in front of the mirror, seeing herself and not some woman with the same face as hers, staring back at her with dead eyes.

She didn't know how long she had been sitting on the floor when Mac knocked.

"You want Chinese, Italian or Greek for dinner?"

She took a deep breath before answering.

"I'm not hungry", her voice sounded much stronger than she was feeling, to be truthful she felt more like throwing up rather than eating.

"You have to eat something!", Mac called back.

She would have argued this point, but she didn't feel up to it.

"You chose! ... But not Greek!"

Normally she loved Greek, not only did she love the taste, but it always felt right, like home, because she would imagine eating it with her family.

Today under this circumstances it just felt wrong.

She finally stepped under the hot water, she winced when the water hit her bruised knees and hands.

_Who is, was this woman? The similarities between them couldn't be random? Right? So why did they look so alike?_

The only conclusion she came to was horrific and raised gooses bumps all over her skin making her shiver even as she stood under the hot water.

_Do I have a sister? A twin sister?_

Since she was young there hadn't been a day where she hadn't thought about her parents.

She had imagined them in thousand of different ways, but they were always wonderful parents and loved each other and loved her. She would imagine how they were forced to give her up, but one day would come back, because they missed and loved their baby girl, but they never did.

Not once in all this time did it occur to her that she could have siblings, that she could have a twin.

Mac was sitting in the living room. He had turned on the TV, a movie was playing, but he had absolutely no idea what it was about.

His mind was still trying to work out everything that had happened today. He looked up as Stella came into the living room.

Her hair was damp and she was wearing an oversized T-shirt above her sweat pants.

"I ordered pizza, hope you don't mind", He got up and went to retrieve the pizza from the kitchen, where he had put it when it arrived 10 minutes earlier.

"What's on your mind?", Mac asked as he handed her a slice of pizza.

He always knew when something was bothering her and in this case it was more than obvious. The case just had to bother her.

"Nothing", she took the pizza and began chewing on it, without really eating.

Mac frowned.

_Why is she lying? _He knew this had to be hard for her. It had been for all of them, but she always told him what's going on. _What she's was thinking? Why doesn't she talk to me? _

He didn't want to admit it, but he was hurt. They were best friends! They told each other everything. Or so he thought.

"I don't want to talk about it", she whispered.

_Please just leave it alone Mac!_ _Please!_

She couldn't look him in the eye, because she knew she'd hurt him. It wasn't like she didn't trust him, but she just didn't want to talk about it.

She looked away. "I'm sorry." Mac knew it wouldn't do any good to ask her again.

_Maybe she will tell you later, she's just not ready yet... _

"It's alright", he said and they both settled on the couch, watching TV.

Danny was still running the prints through AFIS, so far he came up empty. Aiden wasn't having any luck either. Both CSI's jumped when Flack rushed into the lab.

"I got it", said Flack triumphantly waving a file in the air.

"Her name is Aletheia Gerold, her husband filled out the missing person report yesterday evening."

"Yesterday evening?", queried Aiden.

"But she was already dead the night before that", said Danny.

"Husband says he came home from a business trip yesterday evening, found the door open, the house a mess, his baby crying and his wife missing", Flack looked up from the file. "What a mess to come home to."

Now that they knew the victim wasn't Stella they could be more objective and they had fallen back in their usual working routine.

The case was still more personal then any other case, but after all they didn't know the victim.

"Baby?", asked Aiden.

"Yeah says here she has a 10month old daughter", said Flack reading the missing persons report again.

_Another kid growing up without a mother..._

Aiden looked at Danny who seemed to be following similar thoughts.

Flack put the file down. "Police looked at the crime scene, but didn't find anything."

Aide sighed. _Poor baby, thank god she's still to young to know what's going on._

"I'm going to call Mac", said Aiden disappearing from the lab.

Mac was awoken by the sound of his cell ringing. For a moment he was confused.

_What happened? Where the hell am I?_, Then memories of the days events slowly started to come back.

He was sitting on Stella's couch with said woman sleeping in his lap. _She looks like a little girl, so innocent so peaceful..._ Mac grabbed his cellphone.

"Taylor", he answered quietly, trying not to wake Stella.

"It's Aiden. How is she?"

"She'll be alright." He answered with more confidence than he felt. _Will she? How would you manage?_

"She's sleeping right now. What did you find out?"

"We found out who she is." Mac listened as Aiden recited everything that they had found out about the victim.

Closing his cell he placed it on the coffee table. He had told Aiden and the others to go home and get some rest; tomorrow they would interview the husband. The last 24 hours had been hell for all of them, they deserved some free time.

Stella murmured in her sleep. Mac touched her hair slightly. _She's so beautiful..._

She snuggled closer to him. Mac smiled and it didn't take him long until he was asleep again too.

AN2: Special thanks to my beta readers stella-taylor and fruitbat00!

Thanks to everyone who read the story and wrote a review!

chili-peppers I try to imagine, but I don't think it works to well.

scrimshaw89 it's so cool you have a twin, maybe you can help me a bit then ;)

hotchner well I couldn't kill my favourite character, could I?

angie thx hope you like this part too!

simanis no need to apologize 

littlesheep wow now I'm really jealous! CSI in English only a dream come true...

rxc well then enjoy

quille I don't think so, I just have good beta readers, but thanks for the compliment. I always try to make the characters more real by writing about their feelings.

goddessofblood sorry to scare you ;)


	6. Chapter 6

**_AN: Again sorry it took to long, we are getting holidays next week, so we are writing class tests and tests, so I'm a bit busy._**

_**Anyway here's the next chapter. Enjoy!**_

_**Chapter Six**_

The sun that fell through the window woke Mac up.

He looked down, expecting to still find Stella still sleeping in his lap, but she wasn't there. He stood up slightly panicked and began to search the apartment for her.

He was already starting to worry again, when he entered the kitchen and found a note. "Sorry. Help yourself to breakfast. We'll see each other at work. Stella"

Mac felt his anger return.

_What the hell was she doing? Where had she gone? She was going to be the death of him._

He made it to work in record time, after checking the labs and her office he found her in the morgue.

She was sitting on the floor, holding the hand of Aletheia Gerold, just staring off into the distance.

The morgue felt colder than normal and the fact that Stella had opened the freezer, didn't exactly help matters.

"Stella what are you doing? Trying to freeze yourself to death again? Yesterday walking around the city, today sitting beside an open freezer?"

"I'm not cold", She replied stubornly.

She really wasn't, after she first saw the body, it seemed to her that she couldn't feel any basic human emotion like pain, cold and hunger anymore.

"Yeah, sure", answered Mac sarcastically.

"Really", said Stella.

_Mac frowned he had never seen her like this before! He just wanted to help her. He just wasn't sure how. _

Walking over he sat down next to her. "Stella, what are you doing here?"

"She's my sister, she shouldn't be alone", whispered Stella grasping the dead womans hand harder.

She wasn't sure herself why she was here. The woman was dead, it wasn't as if she could change anything by being here. But she couldn't let go. Holding her hand somehow she felt closer to her family than ever before.

"How do you know?", asked Mac.

"I just do", She didn't know how to describe how she felt, but she just had the feeling that they belonged together. That they were family.

Mac and Stella sat on the floor in silence.

Mac sighed.

_They look so much alike. It couldn't be coincidence... Was she really Stellas sister?_

Macs voice broke the silence."Her name is Aletheia Gerold."

"What?", asked Stella looking over at her parnter.

"Flack found her identidy last night, her name is Aletheia Gerold."

He had expected her to be angry, because he hadn't told her sooner, but she wasn't.

She turned reaching out touching the woman's face gently. "Aletheia", she whispered.

Stella turned towards him and was shocked to discover there were tears running down her face. She quickly wept them away.

"It's ok Stella, it's going to be alright."

_Alright? How can he say that! She's dead! Someone f killed her! It's all over!_

_Whatever you say it won't change a thing... You can't let this get to you! It doesn't matter anyway... _

"It's not. She's dead.", Stellas voice was flat and ripped of all kind of emotions.

"Stella?", asked Mac softly.

Stella turned towards him and he was shocked to discover there were tears running down her face.

"It's ok Stella, it's going to be alright."

He wasn't sure what to do. Should he reach out for her or would that only make it worse? It seemed to him like she always knew what to do to help him, but the other way around he sometimes had no clue.

"Alright? How can you say that! She's dead! Someone f killed her! Whatever you say, it won't change the fact that she is dead... " She tried to control her anger. It wasn't Mac's fault why was she so angry at him?

"I promise we'll find whoever is responsible for this", whispered Mac.

He didn't know how to react to her anger. He knew she wasn't really angry at him.

"Aiden said they wanted to interview the husband today."

"She's married?", asked Stella surprised.

"She has a daughter too", told Mac her.

_She has a family? A real family! I have a family?_

"I want to meet them", Stella stood up.

"I don't think that's such a good idea." Mac commented as he pushed himself to his feet.

Stella looked at him her anger returning.

"Why not? I want to see them! Her daughter is my niece right? I'm her aunt! And her husband he knew my sister! Maybe he even knows my family, my parents! And you don't think I should see him?", Stella made her way to the door of the morgue.

"Stella, Stella wait I didn't mean it like that", he ran after her grabbing her wrist.

_Why won't she listen to me? I just want her to understand!_

"Who do you think you are? Don't you understand what this means for me?" She struggeled against his grib, but he didn't let go.

"Let go of me!", screamed Stella.

"Stella just listen to me please!", Mac said to her calmly but without letting go of her wrist.

"You don't have any idea how I feel", she yelled at him.

"Damn it, Stella listen to me. Just think, he has just been told that his wife is dead. What do you think his reaction is going to be if you suddenly walk into that room?", he tried not to show how hurt he was by her words.

She had to admit he had a point. "But I want to see them...", she had stopped screaming and her voice was barely a whisper, she felt the hurt and the loss returning.

"I know you are emotional about this-"

"Do you really think emotional is the right word?", interrupted Stella her anger rising again.

"Look I know this is hard for you, but you have to think about her family too. What about you watch from observation room?"

_He's right! Stop being so damn egoistic! Get a grip! You are too damn emotional!_

She took a deep breath trying to control her anger.

This wasn't just about her. A man had lost his wife, a child had lost its mother.

She looked up at him with an unspoken apology in her eyes.

"OK. I will watch, just watch."

Mac nodded and the two of them made their way to the elevator.

Stella looked though the mirror of the interview room.

Mac had left, he wanted proof that Aletheia really was Stellas sister. Stella knew it in her heart, but Mac needed evidence, so he decided to run her DNA against Aletheias.

On the other side there was a man sitting on the table, he seemed tired and it looked like he had been crying.

_Is that him? The husband of my sister? My brother in law..._

Stella noticed how attractive he was. He had short brown hair and brown eyes and he looked like he worked out. Her sister was lucky to have him.

The CSI part of her brain told her that he was a possible suspect, but her heart had already ruled this possibility out.

"I may introduce Tomas Gerold and his daughter Lilian", said Aiden stepping into the room with a little girl in her arms.

"Aiden, hi", said Stella. She looked at the little girl.

She was sleeping, her little hands gripping a litlle stuffed animal. She was wearing a pink babygrow with some flowers on it which matched the pacifier she had in her mouth.

Even though her eyes were closed, Stella would have bet her eyes were the same green as her mothers and her own.

She really looked a lot like her mother, her whole face seemed to be the mirror image and her brown hair already seemed to have the same.

_Lilian...She looks like an angel. _

"Hi Stella, I'm glad to see you. How are you doing?", asked Aiden still concerned for her friend.

"Fine", said Stella dismissing the question. "Can I hold her?", she asked quietly.

"Yeah sure", said Aiden, giving her the baby.

Stella carefully wrapped her arms around the child.

_Such a small human being..._

She took her finger and touched the small hands and to her surprise Lilian grabbed her finger and curled her hand around it.

Stella smiled, lost in the moment.

After a while she stepped to the mirror again, looking at the man sitting there devastated. _That's your dad, isn't it, little Lilian? _

Danny and Flack stepped into the interview room.

"Mr Tomas Gerold?", asked Flack.

"Have you found my wife? Can I see her? Is she alright?", his eyes shot up looking hopefully at Danny, who glanced over to Flack.

That's the part he hated most about the job.

Every day they had to tell people that someone close to them, a loved one, a mother, a wife, a child had died and it never got any easier.

"I'm Detective Flack this is Danny Messer with the crime lab", explained Flack, preparing himself for what he was about to say next.

Tomas Gerold looked from Flack to Danny. "She's dead, isn't she?", his voice sounded hollow.

"Yes, I'm sorry", Danny looked over to the mirror, where Stella was standing with Lilian in her arms.

"No,no,no, she can't be dead! I need her! Lilian needs her!", he started crying.

Stella couldn't take it, she had to turn away from the mirror.

In this moment she wanted nothing more than to switch places with her sister.

_She has a family and loved ones, someone who needs her and cares for her. She has people who miss her and me? _

_The only thing I have is a job, someone could easily replace me. I have no one, no one would miss me, why did she have to die? Why couldn't it have been me? _

Her attention was drawn back to the interview, when Flack and Danny stepped into the room.

"We have to ask you a few questions", said Flack.

"Yeah, yeah...", he looked up again and tried to pull himself together.

"When did you last see your wife?", asked Danny.

"Monday, when I left for my trip", he answered, "why did I go? If I had stayed here then this wouldn't have happened!"

"You shouldn't blame yourself for that, it could have happend anyway", said Danny.

_Could it? Maybe he's right, if he had stayed they would both be dead or they could both be dead, maybe... Guess we will never know... Now all that counts now is the evidence and first of all I have to concentrate on the interview at hand._

"You came back Wednesday evening? Is that right?", asked Flack, Tomas just nodded. "Can you please tell me what happened?"

"I came back from the airport, it was around six... I think. When I came home the front door wasn't locked, I didn't think anything of it, sometimes Aletheia forgets to lock the door. But when, when I went in...", he had to stop.

He took a deep breath as emotions threatened to overwhelm him.

"It was a mess, the hallway mirror was broken and there were books lying everywhere, the vase was broken and the flowers were all over the floor... then I heard Lilian crying. I went up to Lilians room and called for Aletheia, but she didn't answer...", he had to take another break trying to compose himself.

"I picked Lilian up and started searching for Aletheia, but she... she wasn't there, she was gone...", he started crying again.

Flack waited a moment to give him the time he needed to pull himself together.

"At that's when you called the police?"

Tomas nodded. "Can I please go?"

"Yeah, we will get back at you if we have anymore questions", said Danny.

Behind the mirror Stella stood frozen. Thinking for the umpteenth time how unfair this whole situation was.

She did her best not to cry again as she looked down at the little girl in her arms.

"No, it isn't fair! You will never know your mummy, all you are going to have is your dad and some photos..."

"Stella", Aiden touched her shoulder smiling sadly. "I need her back."

Stella just took a last glance at Lilians face and then gave her to Aiden.

Aiden left the room with Lilian, leaving Stella alone with her thoughts.

AN:As usually special thanks to my beta readers fruitbat00 and stella-taylor and to everyone who wrote a review. Also to everyone who read the story and was too lazy to write a review.

littlesheep thanks you and I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long!

chili-peppers seems like quite some people have twins. That's so cool!

hotcher well glad I made you happy then. ;)

picchic I can't remember that episode with Sara, when was it? Well maybe I should bring Katy back then.

Laura I fooled quite a lot of people there. Here's the next chapter.


	7. Chapter 7

_AN: I know bad me, really took me long to write this part, but I've got holidays now, so the next part will come faster._

_**Chapter Seven**_

Stella sat in her office.

In front of her lay a file. A normal file, like dozen other files that crossed her desk on a daily basis.

She didn't even want to count how many files like that she had seen in her life.

Her thumb drifted absently across the rough paper tracing the name that was written on it in neat letters.

She traced the lines of an A. She felt the little deepth on the paper.

These few letters that made this file completly different from any other file she had ever held in her hands.

In this file were the answers she had wanted to know all her life and yet she couldn't bring herself to open it.

_What's your fucking problem Stella?_

_You always wanted to know about your life, about your family and now when you finally have the chance you chicken out?_

_What happend to the stubborn woman who was never afraid of the truth?_

Her finger touched the edges of the file as if wanting to open it.

But she imediatly let go of the file and tore her hand back as if she had been burned.

_What are you afraid of? The truth? That you will finally have answers?_

She didn't want to listen to this voice in her head, but she knew it was true.

All her life she had lived with the fact that she didn't know anything about herself, her parents, her family and simple things like her birthday and her real name.

Things other people took for granted, didn't even give a real thought about.

All she knew was, that someone at the orphanage made up her name and guessed her birthday.

She had spent her whole life trying to find out who she was and even though she never gave up searching for those answers, somewhere along the way she had learned that she was her own person and no information in the world could change that.

But now with these answers right in front of her, she felt like if she opened this file she would see what she should have been like and she was afraid she had failed.

Her head hit her desk with a frustated sigh.

_I want to know the truth, don't I? _

Flack chose that moment to appear in the door to her office.

"I want to go interview her co-workers, wanna come?"

Maybe he should have just gone alone, she didn't seem like she was up for a interview of her doppelganger's co-workers.

She looked up startled, she had been so deep in thoughts she hadn't even hear Flack come in.

"Yeah, sure, just let me...", she murmeled confused.

She stood up grabbed her jacket without finishing the sentence and walked out of the office, her thought still occupied with the file that was still lying close on her desk.

Flack followed her worriedly out to the car.

_What was up with her? Why had she seemed so distanced?_

"You know Mac, if you keep standing there watching me work, its not going to make me finish faster!", Jane commented looking up from her work.

Mac had given her two DNA samples to compare, one from the victim one from Stella, so she could understand that he wanted this result as soon as possible, but Mac just standing there staring at her gave her the creeps. She normally didn't mind, but somehow this time it was different.

"I know", was Mac's short answer. He was standing next to the door and he didn't seem to move at all.

"Don't you think you could use your time better, than watching me work?", she understood that he was concerned for Stella, so she tried her best not to sound annoyed.

She just couldn't work with him standing there like a statue, following her every move.

He sighed. Even though he didn't want to admit it, she did have a point. He just wasn't so sure he could concentrate on anything else until he knew the truth.

"Mac, look, I promise to page you as soon as I have the result."

Mac just nodded. He didn't like to leave, but he had heard the faint sound of annoyance in Jane's voice and decided it was best for both of them, if he left her alone.

He stepped out of the door, but his thought were still with the DNA testing that was done in the room he just left.

_Was the woman in the morgue really Stella's sister? _

_What would happen if she was? What if she wasn't? _

_Stella seemed to believen that it was her sister lying there. _

_What would be worse for her? Having a dead sister or not having a sister at all? _

_Why did he care so much anyway? They were friends, but was that all that he felt or was there more? Could there be more? _

Danny and Aiden were standing in front of a big house it was surronded by a beautiful garden. It wasn't a villa, but way bigger then the two of them had expected.

"Not bad, tell me again, what he does for a living?", asked Danny.

"He sells and designs furniture", said Aiden smiling at Danny's disbelieving look. "Makes you think you choose the wrong career, doesn't it?"

"Yep, the only chance we have is to marry someone rich", joked Danny.

"Too bad all the rich people we meet are either dead or we are putting them in jail", Aiden made her way to the front door, which was taped shut with yellow crime scene tape.

Danny opened the front door and stepped into the hall.

"Tell you what, next time we meet someone rich, we don't sent them to jail we blackmail them into marrying one of us."

"Deal", answered Aiden.

The hall was nicely decorated. There were paintings on the wall and some plants in pots on the floor. On their right a staircase led upstairs.

"So where do we start?"

"She was wearing a nightgrow, right? So I'm guessing she was attacked in her sleep or at least in her bedroom, let's start there", suggested Danny.

"OK, but in the report it says, that there wasn't any evidence of a struggle in the bedroom", Aiden took out the file of the premilary report the police had carried out when Aletheia went missing.

They made their way up the staircase.

Aiden opened the first door on their right.

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say this is the babys room."

The room was painted in a light pink, there were some stuffed animals on the shelf and in the middle of the room stood a crib.

After a quick check of the room, they went on to the next room.

Danny stepped into the bedroom. He quickly scanned the room.

There was a large dresser to his left and before him stood a kingsized bed.

"Seems like she was sleeping", stated Aiden staring at the unmade bed.

"There are no sighns of a struggle or anything out of place, so she wasn't attacked here", Danny went over to the bedside table.

"Maybe she heard a noise or something", suggested Aiden.

"When she went to check on it, why didn't she take her gun?", said Danny, holding up a gun he found in the drawer.

"OK, got me I don't know, maybe she forgot about it or she didn't think it was necessary or she just went down because she was hungry or she couldn't sleep", Aiden shrugged as she ran through all the scenarios that came to mind.

Danny went over the bed sheets with a blacklight. "It's clean."

"So she wasn't raped here and probably not attacked either", said Aiden as she looked at the pictures that were hanging on the wall next to the bed.

One was of Aletheia, one of Lilian and her dad and one of them all together.

She looked at Aletheia and couldn't help but imagining Stella in her position.

She had never thought of Stella as a family person, but looking at these picture, she couldn't help but wonder.

"Aiden, you found something?", Danny called from the doorway.

"No, no I'll be right there", she took a last look at the picture before following Danny as he headed downstairs.

Together they entered the living room. It was a mess.

There were chairs lying on the floor, the table was turned upside down and there were fragments of what used to be a vase on the floor.

The flowers, white lillies, where lying everywhere and the spilled water had left a dark stain on the carpet.

Some books had been swept off the shelf and were now lying on the floor.

Aiden walked to the upturned table.

"This is strange", thought Aiden, she didn't even realize she had spoken out loud until Danny came over to her.

"What's strange?"

She jumped a little hearing his voice so close to her.

"See these broken cups?" She pointed to the items on the floor.

"Yeah... why is it strange, everthing here is broken", said Danny looking at the fragments. "Maybe she couldn't sleep and went down to drink some tea."

"Danny there are two cups on the floor", said Aiden.

"There are no signs of forced entry...", said Danny following her trail of thoughts.

"She knew her killer, Danny."

_AN2: Thanks to fruitbat00 for reading better! I don't know what I would do without you!_

_Thanks to everyone who wrote a review, that's what keeps me writing this story._

_littlesheep Believe it or not, but I didn't even have time to watch anything before this weekend. It drove me crazy, see these DVDs lying there and not having time. But I finally got around to watching them, I love it! Thank you!_

_scrimshaw I know poor baby. I thought about leaving the baby out because I just had a hard time writing that part. _

_hotchner You really think I could be that cruel and not let them find the killer?_

_chili-peppers Thank you, hope you like this part too ;)_


	8. Chapter 8

_**AN: Here you go again! Enjoy!**_

_**Chapter Eight**_

Aletheia Gerold had been a teacher at a public high school in Brooklyn.

It seemed like they arrived during a break as lot of students were outside milling around in the schoolyard.

When Stella and Flack got out of the car, most of them stopped what they were doing and stood staring at Stella.

Stella bristled at the strange looks.

_They think I'm her. They think I'm Aletheia. _

Stella felt uncomfortable here with all these people staring at her.

This wasn't her world anymore, it was Aletheia's. She kept her head down she followed Flack to the entrance.

They stood in a long hallway with lockers lining both walls. Just like outside there were students everywhere just standing around talking or retrieving things from their lockers.

Stella saw a brown-haired girl wearing what looked like a cheerleading uniform making out with a tall boy. She thought back about her high school time. You really did miss a lot of stuff in the orphanage, making out against a locker would have never occurred to her back then.

Flack walked over to a boy who was opening his locker to their right.

"Can you tell me where I find the director, please?", asked Flack.

"Yeah, just follow this hallway and then it's on the left side", answered the boy without looking up from his books. When he finally did he visibly paled.

"Mrs Gerold?"

The "central park murder" as the press was calling it, had been in the TV a few hours ago. No one knew how they found out about the identity of the victim, but they had.

Stella winced. _What did you expect Stella, sooner or later someone would ask that question!_

"No, I'm Stella Bonasera with the crime lab", answered Stella after finally snapping out of her temporary shock.

"I know they look a lot alike, but this isn't your teacher", Answered Flack.

Wondering again if bringing Stella had been a good idea after all.

After a lot of other stares from the students, Flack and Stella finally found the office of the director.

They stepped into a office with a middle aged woman sitting behind a desk.

She seemed to be on the phone with someone, but hung up as soon as she saw that someone had entered her office.

"May I help you?", she asked in a friendly voice. Or in Stella's opinion with a voice that was way too friendly.

Even though she didn't really know the woman, she completely disliked her.

She was the kind of woman who was your friend, but as soon as you turned away she would stab you in the back.

"We are here to see the director", said Flack.

"He's busy at the moment, can you please come back later Mr and Mrs...", she answered in the sweet voice that was starting to drive Stella nuts.

"Look, I don't care if he's busy, we want to see him now", said Stella glaring at her.

_What was it this about this woman that she didn't like? And why didn't she recognize her? _

_Not that Stella minded, she was a little unnerved by everyone staring at her like she was a ghost. But this woman didn't seemed to be new around here so why didn't she show any sign that she recognized her as Aletheia Gerold ._

Flack flashed his badge to the woman casting a confused glanced at his colleague.

What the hell was up with her and why was she taking it out on the woman in front of them, after all as far as he could see the woman hadn't done anything to warrant Stella's anger.

"Were NYPD. I'm Detective Flack this is Detective Bonasera with the Crime Lab. And we really need to see the director", Flack smiled at her what he hoped was a charming smile.

"I see what I can do", she smiled at Flack and got up.

She walked to one of the doors knocked and then opened it carefully as if she expected the door to explode in her face.

"Didn't I tell you not to bother me with anything", the angry voice of what seemed to be the director was heard.

"I'm sorry, but there are two people from the police here to talk to you."

"OK, send them in", came the answer in a voice that left no doubt, that he was anything but happy about it.

The woman came out again and sat behind her desk as if nothing unusual had happened. "You can go in now."

Stella and Flack exchanged confused glances, before they stepped into the office.

The office wasn't very big and it looked like no one put any effort into making it seem nice.

"I'm Detective Flack and this is Detective Bonasera with the crime lab", introduced Flack for the second time that day.

"Mr Coop, I think you know why we are here", said Flack looking at the man, who hadn't even bothered to look up from what he was doing.

"It's Director Coop and I imagine one of my students is in trouble again."

_Who does he think he is? Such an asshole!_

Stella knew the director had been informed of Aletheias death, shortly after the husband.

"Actually no, it's about one of your teachers. Aletheia Gerold", Stella jumped in.

Henry Coop eventually bothered to lift his head and opened his mouth to reply, but it got caught in his throat when he looked at Stella.

"Is this some sick joke or something?", he finally asked.

"No it's not. As you may have noticed since you got a call from the NYPD this morning and since she hasn't been to work lately Mrs Gerold is dead, so we would like to ask you some questions."

"Yeah right, and you are what her ghost? You know I really feel like firing you right now", he barked at Stella angrily.

"I'm not Mrs Gerold ", Stella's tone matching his exactly as she shoved her badge into his face.

"How long has she been working here? Did she have she any enemies?" The questions were fired rapidly at the confused director.

Flack took a deep breath groaning inwardly. He really was regretting bringing her along.

----------------------------

Mac sat in the lab, he tried hard to concentrate on the evidence in front of him, but it seemed pointless.

He had reviewed everything they had found on the first crime scene, the evidence from the body and the autopsy report. Yet there seemed to be nothing that could bring them any closer to finding the killer.

Sure they had the DNA, but they had nothing to compare it too, they still had to ask the husband for a sample. And then there was the shoe print, which seemed to fit to no known type in their data base, so that was a dead end. Well at least until they could find something to compare it with.

He opened another evidence paper bag, this one contained the nightdress that the victim had worn .

He stopped what he was doing frowning how long had it taken him to switch back to calling her the victim again? Her name was Aletheia he corrected himself.

How could he be so emotional earlier as he sat around waiting for DNA results then in the next minute he was back to calling her thevictim again.

Mentally shaking himself he pulled his thoughts back to the task at hand.

Carefully he scanned the nightdress for fibers, stains or anything else that could be used as evidence. He found the sperm stain Aiden had talked about earlier, but there didn't seem to be any other trace material...

As he was about to put it back in the evidence bag when something caught his eye. He had nearly overlooked it, but there seemed to be some kind of powder on the straps.

With rising hope he examined what he had found, but his excitement disappeared quickly as he looked at the substance under the microscope.

It seemed to be normal building dust, plain old building dust that could have come from every building site in the city.

Maybe it could narrow down the point of the original crime scene if it wasn't the house. But it wasn't any evidence they could use in court.

Damn it! Mac sighed as he placed the nightdress back in the bag.

He would send it off to trace non the less.

--------------------------

"So Miss Spender, you and Mrs Gerold were friends?", Flack was talking to a short Asian looking woman who was one of Aletheia Gerolds fellow teachers .

Stella and Flack had given up, learning anything from the director after a few minutes.

All they had gotten out of him was that he didn't care the slightest about any of the teachers in his school, and that as far as he was concerned all that Aletheia had caused him was trouble.

In his opinion it was a crime to care for the students and the only reason he cared about Mrs. Gerold's death was the fact that now he had to search for a new teacher.

Stella had been ready to strangle him with her bare hands then and there. It was at this point that Flack had decided to end this interview.

If they wanted to know anything about Aletheia, they would have more luck talking to the other teachers.

"'Yes", Carol Spender answered. They were sitting in one of the class rooms.

Carol Spender seemed very upset and her red eyes indicated that she had been crying earlier.

"Do you know if any one would want to hurt her or if she had any enemies?", asked Flack.

"Well, there was the director for one, no one here likes him, but no one would risk their job in saying so. They fought the day before... you know", she whispered.

Flack strained to hear what she was saying.

"Do you know what the fight was about?", Flack didn't bother lowering his voice he wasn't bothered about offending anyone, not when he had a murder to solve.

His dislike for the director growing stronger with each passing minute. He was glad he didn't have him as a superior.

Ms Spender sniffed twisting a hankie between her hands.

"I don't know... I wanted to ask her, but she just brushed it off, said it wasn't important."

Flack looked up as Stella stepped into the room. They had decided to spit up to interview the staff to save valuable time.

"Thank you Miss Spender, we will reach you if we need any further information", said Flack.

Standing up he placed his notebook in his pocket and headed over to Stella.

"So you found out anything?", asked Stella as they walked back to the car.

She was more than happy to be leaving the school, it drove her crazy that everyone was staring at her even though they knew she wasn't Aletheia Gerold.

"Well, she and the director had a fight, we don't know what it was about, so maybe he has a motive. What about you?"

"Seems like she had a secret admirer, one of her girlfriends mentioned that Robert Norman, a Math teacher, had a crush on her and wouldn't take no for an answer even though she was married."

"Did you talk to him about it?", Flack asked her his curiosity piqued.

Finally we are getting somewhere he thought; finally we have a motive or two.

"Nope, conveniently he was ill today", said Stella. Just then her cell rang.

"Bonasera", she answered. "We are on our way back... Ok... Bye"

Even though Flack had only heard one side of the conversation, he knew what it was about.

"Mac wants to know what we found out", she filled him in. Flack nodded as he stepped into the car.

-----------------------

Everyone was gathered in the lab.

Mac had put the crime scene photos on the table including all the evidence, even though everybody still avoided looking at the pictures of the body. They hadn't quite gotten over the shock of thinking Stella was the victim.

"We examined her house, everything was a mess, there was a lot of blood all over the place, there was definetly a struggle, so hopefully we may have some from the killer too, but we have to wait for DNA results first-", started Danny.

"There are no signs of forced entry and we found two broken cups on the floor, suggesting she knew the killer", Aiden handed the pictures she had taken at the house to Mac.

Mac looked over to Flack and Stella. "Did you find out anything at the school?"

"We found two possible suspects. Henry Coop the school director, she had a fight with him the day before she died. We also have Robert Norman the Math teacher who was repeatedly turned down by her", said Flack pinning the photos of the two on the board.

"I found some powder on the nightdress it looks like simple building dust, I sent it off to trace." Mac stopped and looked over at Stella.

"I also got the DNA results." He didn't have to say which DNA test he was talking about, everybody knew. He opened the folder again, even though he knew exactly what it said.

"She's you sister, Stella." He passed the folder over to his friend and partner.

She looked down at the results. So it was true after all, Aletheia Gerold and Stella Bonasera were twins.

----------------------

396... She checked again, yes it was the right number.

She nervously fiddled with her hair. She had tried putting it up in an attempt to make her look less like herself, which was obviously a lost cause.

She raised her hand to knock on the door.

She shouldn't be here, she knew she shouldn't, but some part of her wanted to be here or felt as if she had to be here.

Taking a deep breath she finally knocked on the door. After a few moments the door opened to reveal Tomas Gerold.

AN2: So what do you think? This part was a lot longer, so I exspect more reviews. ;) Please?


	9. Chapter 9

_**Chapter Nine **_

"I... I'm..."Stella stuttered.

She had played this conversation in her head dozens of times on her way over here, but now she couldn't seem to get a word out.

Tomas Gerold just stood there staring at her, not moving a muscle his face as white as a sheet. He stared at Stella in complete shock.

Stella mentally chastised herself.

_What had she been thinking coming here? It was a stupid idea to begin with! What did she think his reaction would be? How could she do that to him? She remembered the reaction of everyone at the lab to seeing her after thinking she was dead and what did she do? Run to the person who loved her sister! _

Well she was here now so she may as well explain herself

"I'm Stella Bonasera. I'm sorry ... I know what you must be thinking... Aletheia and I we are... we were twins..."

"I...I... I don't know what to say...", Tomas finally managed.

The both of them stood in door an awkward silence between them. Suddenly they heard a whimper and a moment later Lilian started crying.

"Why... why don't you come in?", he asked obviously still shocked at her appearance.

Stella nodded gratefully and entered the hotel room, while Tomas headed towards his crying daughter.

She had half expected him to slam the door in her face. She would have.

The hotel room seemed nice enough; there was one main room with a couch and a TV. It was painted a light green colour that matched the furniture.

He gestured for her to take a seat before he disappeared through one of the two doors leading of the lounge, which presumably led to the bedroom and the bathroom.

Stella sat down looking around the room until Tomas came back with little Lililan curled in his arms. She sobbed clutching a doll to her face.

"I think she's hungry...", said Tomas. He stalked off retrieving a bottle and giving it to his daughter. But Lilian just turned her head away and started crying again.

_You miss your mummy don't you? You're probably wondering why she left you alone, abandoned you... Poor baby..._

Stella watched Tomas trying to convince the baby to take the bottle he offered, but Lilian just cried harder.

"Lili baby, please, I know you are hungry...", he whispered, but the words just made Lilian cry harder.

"Ali was still breastfeeding her and she just doesn't want to take the bottle", said Tomas to know one in particular.

Stella didn't know why she suddenly felt angry.

Angry at her sister for not fighting harder, for dying, even though she knew how irrational that was. Angry at herself for not being able to do anything.

Angry at the world for letting her sister die and most of all angry at the person who murdered her.

She always considered that she wasn't capable of committing murder, but now she had to rethink. What would she do if she had the chance for revenge, would she take it? Was she capable of killing someone for her sister?

She honestly didn't know anymore.

It seemed that Tomas had finally convinced Lilian to take her bottle and diverted his attention back to her.

"What are you doing here? Aletheia never told me she had a sister", Tomas looked at her doubtfully.

"She probably didn't know, in fact I didn't even know I had a sister until ... well...until I saw her body...", What was she supposed to say to him.

That she came here because she had been curious? That sounded stupid and selfish!

Well maybe it was, maybe coming here in the first place had been selfish.

Looking at the man in front of her she felt that she should start at the beginning. She took a deep breath.

"I grew up in an orphanage. I never knew my parents. As far as I was aware I had no family. Then I found out about Alethia…."

She noticed him frown in confusion. "I am a detective with the crime lab when... they found your wife... Aletheias body, they thought... it was me... and well that's how I found out, that I ... had a sister... "

Stella ended her story and looked up at Tomas. She wondered if he had understood one word she had been saying, because she was sure she had rushed it all out in one breath. Hell, she wouldn't have understood a word she had been saying.

"So you and Aletheia... you never knew you were sisters or that you existed for that matter?"

"No... " _God, what was she doing here? This man was obviously still in shock!_ "Look I'm sorry I shouldn't have come over here like this", apologized Stella.

"No no that's ok, it's just kind of sudden", answered Tomas, he looked down at Lilian, who had fallen asleep in his arms the bottle still in her mouth.

"I better take her to bed."

Stella sat still and for a moment she considered getting up and running away.

She didn't know what she was doing here anyway. She knew that Mac would kill her for this. He had told her to stay away.

"What do you want?", asked Tomas when he came back in.

Stella jumped at the sudden question, she had been so lost in her thoughts, she hadn't noticed Tomas coming back in.

"Sorry that was kind of rude, I just don't know-" He stopped unsure of what to say. He was just as unsure about this situation as Stella.

"That's ok…look I know this …all of this is a shock... I came here, because well I want to know something about Aletheia, about my family. For example what kind of person was she? Do I have more any more brothers or sisters? Was she adopted? ..."

That thought had never occurred to her before. It was a possibility she never considered.

She didn't know which answer she would like better. If she discovered that they were both put into care then there was the question of why Aletheia had been adopted and why she hadn't.

If Aletheia hadn't been adopted then there was the question of why had her parents given her up and kept Aletheia. She was surprised at the stab of jealousy she felt at her last thought.

Jealousy with what seemed to be anger at herself. Was it her own fault she had ended up in an orphanage?

"Her parents died in a car accident 3 years ago, it hit her really hard", he remembered with a slight smile on his face.

Stella looked at him strangely. How could smile, while telling her that her parents had died? _Her parents were dead!_ The fact just registered in her mind.

_Alethia's parents, her parents, were dead, she would never meet them. She was three years too late._

She was surprised she didn't feel more upset at the discovery. Was she a horrible person for not being sad? But all she could feel at the moment was numb.

Her whole world had been turned upside down in the last couple of days. It was just too much for her to take in.

"I'm sorry, it was a hard time for both of us and it was a terrible thing for her to loose her parents, but if she hadn't then we would never have met."

"Excuse me, but I don't understand...", said Stella, her tired brain wasn't really up to processing information.

"We met in a grief group, she couldn't deal with her parents death and I had just lost my first wife and my child, you know she was pregnant when she died."

Stella looked up and saw tears forming in his eyes. "I'm really sorry."

"We helped each other, I don't think I could have done it without her", he put his face in his hands, to cover up the fact, that he was crying.

"What am I supposed to do now? I can't live without her! I don't even know how to comfort Lillian, I mean I'm her father and I don't even know how to deal with her", he couldn't hide the sobs any longer.

Stella didn't know how to act, what to do.

Her sight was blurred from the tears that had begun forming in her own eyes as she finally allowed herself to cry.

For her sister, for her parents, both of whom she never met and yet she still felt like she wasn't a whole person without them.

Two people in the same hotel room, who didn't even know each other, yet crying for the same person. Sitting there together and yet isolated from each other, both lost in their own thoughts in their own worlds.

AN: This part was really hard to write and I'm still very unsure about it. You can thank my beta reader that I put it on at all. So please, please tell me what you think of it!


	10. Chapter 10

_**Chapter Ten **_

Stella walked into the lab the next morning feeling like hell.

She had lain awake in bed the whole night, playing the conversation with Tomas over and over in her mind. And the only thing that came out of it was that even though she had been so close to the answer she had searched for her whole life, she was now farther away than ever before.

She would never know what her parents had been like, or why they had given her up, because they were dead, as was the only other person who may have known the answers.

Had Aletheia had a nice childhood? Had they been good parents?

When the first rays of sunlight had shone through her window she had finally given up on the idea of sleep and made herself a large cup of coffee.

The funny thing was, that instead of waking her, up the coffee had done quite the opposite and she had fallen asleep with her head on the table.

So now her back ached and she was late for work. She was never late for work, never.

This was her punishment for visiting Tomas and Lillian, she figured.

"Nice of you to finally join us", greeted Aiden with a smile on his face.

"Sorry I overslept", murmured Stella as she sat down next to Danny, they were gathered in the same room as yesterday.

"What? Stella Bonasera overslept? My whole world is falling apart!", joked Danny.

Stella slapped him on the arm a small smile forming on her face.

She noticed Mac standing next to the incident board when she came in. He hadn't commented on her tardiness.

She looked over at him and their eyes locked for a moment.

They had known each other long enough that she immediately knew what the look in his eyes was. He wanted to know if she was alright.

She had to look away, she couldn't stand the thought of him being worried about her at the moment, it made her feel even guiltier.

Luckily for her Flack choose that moment to enter the room.

"I ran a few background checks. The director Mr Coop my favourite suspect had a little run in with the law a few months ago... about an unpaid parking ticket.

The funny thing is that he went to court with it. He said that the policeman who issued the ticket was an old student out for revenge. And get this, he got away with it."

"You've got to be kidding!", said Aiden. "He went to court because of a parking ticket?"

Flack just nodded. "Unfortunately that was his only run in with the police. Our second suspect the Math teacher Mr Norman is an entirely different story. It's like he didn't even exist until about eight months ago. He appeared out of thin air, I cant find any trace of him before that."

"We should definitely talk to Mr Norman, that and the fact that he hasn't shown up to work since Aletheia Gerold's murder makes him doubly suspicious."

This was the first thing Mac said since Stella had entered the room. "Anything else?"

"I checked out the husband's alibi", said Aiden. "He booked the flights a few weeks back and his flight landed at JFK 4.55pm which is 11 hours after his wife died. I also spoke to the guy who organized the conference; he confirmed that Mr Gerold was there."

"I ran a background check on him", said Flack.

"Why? He has an alibi, he's innocent!"

Tomas hadn't killed his wife Stella was certain of that. The poor guy had been through enough he didn't deserve to be treated like a suspect.

"He might have an alibi, but a lot of suspects have had seemingly iron clad alibis that didn't stand up to close inspection. Get this, two years ago his wife died under suspicious circumstances."

"She was found at home in her bathtub she had cut her wrists. She was six months pregnant at the time. Her husband said she committed suicide." He looked over at Mac it had been more than 4 years since Claire died and he knew Mac still wasn't over her death. He sighed everyone needed time to greave and to him Tomas Gerold quick remarriage seemed a bit rushed. Turning his attention back to the case at hand he continued "Your pregnant wife kills herself and two years later you are married with a six month old baby? Nine months after his wife's death he knocked up the next woman. Am I the only one who finds that a bit odd? If you ask me they didn't meet each other after his wife's death", suggested Flack.

Stella couldn't hold back anymore. How could he say something like that! What was he implying? That her sister had an affair with him, while he was married? That maybe he killed his wife?

"That's not true! He loved his wife. Her death hit him hard. He had to go to grief group to deal with it! And that's where they met! He had nothing to do with her death and neither did my sister!", Stella yelled at Flack as she stood up and stepped towards the detective.

Flack held up his hands in defence "Hey I was just suggesting-"

"You were suggesting he killed his first wife, you were suggesting my sister was responsible for her death!"

"Stella!", yelled Mac, so she would hear him over her shouting at Flack.

She stopped in her tracks and turned to face her partner.

"What?", she asked with an still angry voice, she wasn't yelling anymore, but everyone could hear she was very close to it.

"Can I talk to you in my office?", Mac asked in a calm tone.

Stella knew she was in trouble. But at this moment she couldn't care less. Who the hell did Flack think he was to suggest something like that? She didn't even bother to answer Mac she just turned and stormed out of the lab.

Aiden and Danny had followed the screaming match with growing curiosity and were now watching Mac waiting for his next move.

Mac turned and glared at the two CSI's.

"Don't you have work to do? I want you to find the teacher", with that he stalked out of the lab. He used the walk to his office to collect his thoughts. As he stepped into his office he found Stella standing at the window with her back to him. He closed the door behind him.

"You went to see him", it wasn't a question, it was a statement. He tried his best to keep the hurt out of his voice. Why did she go? Why did she lie to him? He waited for some kind of reaction from her, but she gave no indication she heard him at all. This was part of the mystery that was Stella, he never knew what she would do next.

"Yes", she turned around and spoke in a surprisingly calm voice.

Was this really the person that just had a screaming match with one of their best detectives less than five minutes ago.

Silence fell heavily between them neither knowing what to say.

"Why?", asked Mac.

"I had to."

"Why? I just don't understand!",He knew he was raising his voice at her, but he just didn't understand. He wanted to, but the way Stella was acting, just didn't make any sense to him lately.

"Damn it Mac! I had to know! He's the only family I have left! But you don't understand that do you?", she was shouting again and Mac was pretty sure the whole lab could hear her.

"You go through your life with all your rules, you know what's right, you know yourself! We are completely different. I have lived with a lie my whole life. Every time someone called my name, it was a lie, because it wasn't my real name. Every fucking time I was reminded of it! Have you any idea what this feels like?", she glared at him.

"Maybe I don't, but-", Mac couldn't even finish the sentence before Stella cut him off angrily.

"That's right you don't! And there's no but, you have no idea what I have been going through since I found out I had a sister! You have no idea! My life has just gone to hell, everything is turned upside down! I saw her husband and her daughter and her friends! She was fucking perfect! And then I look at my screwed up life! My life is nothing! It has no fucking point! You know nothing about me! About how I feel! Nothing!"

She could feel the tears in her eyes, threatening to fall as her emotions started to get the better of her.

Mac watched her as she raged at him and he could feel his own anger start to rise.

"Maybe you're right, maybe I don't know you at all! Because the Stella I thought I knew, thought about other people and not just about herself! You think this has been hard for you? Well I have news for you! It has been hard for all of us! I saw you lying there dead! Have you any idea what THAT felt like!"

She had no idea how much her words had hurt him, which made him angry. How could she say these things to him?

"After Claire I thought I could never love anyone again! But when I saw you lying there," his voice was caught for a moment. His mind going back to the scene in central park.

"I realized I loved you! Or at least I loved the Stella I thought I knew! The Stella that always stood by my side, that was there when I needed her. The most beautiful woman I knew, who always thought about other people first. The woman who could capture everyone's attention with just a smile.

But maybe I was wrong! I loved the caring Stella, who was dedicated to her job. The Stella, who took care of people and never expected anything in return. Well I was wrong! Maybe your right maybe I don't know anything about you! Maybe the Stella I loved really did die! Maybe it was her lying dead in Central Park after all!", Mac turned around and left the office.

He didn't trust himself look back. He felt broken, emotionally shattered and this time there would be no one there to help him put the pieces back together again.

AN: I know mean cliffhanger, but hey there has to be something I'm good at right?


	11. Chapter 11

_AN: I know bad me...Anyway I won't keep you from reading any longer by making apologizes, why it took me so long! Thank you all for the nice reviews!_

_**Chapter Eleven**_

Stella stood in the office shocked, she stared at the place where moments before her partner had stood fighting with her, before storming out.

What had just happend here? Was she imagining things? Had he really told her he loved her? Did he know what just admitted?

Her anger was long forgotton. She suddenly felt weak and most of all stupid.

What had she done? Had she really been such a bitch lately?

The sad answer was, that since she found out about Aletheia , she had been everything but nice too him.

She looked out of the window over the city. The skyscrapers never failed to make her feel small and unimportant.

She had pushed Mac away and she had hurt him by saying all those things to him.

Now, by her own stupid behaviour she had probably lost her best friend. The only person who really understood her, the only person she had ever loved.

She loved Mac she had realized this long ago, but she never acted upon her feelings or told him how she felt, afraid she might loose him as a friend.

She had known he hadn't been ready for a new relationship, his world still revolved around the loss of Claire. But now, when he was finally ready to move on, she went and screwed up any chance she had.

Great Stella, story of your life, you always manage to ruin everything good.

Her eyesight was blured, tears were beginning to from in her eyes. She tried to fight them, but she couldn't.

She just stood in his office, in Macs office, looking over the city, tears trailing down her cheeks.

"Think they've stopped yelling at each other yet?", asked Danny.

They were standing in the elevator of the apartment building Robert Norman lived in.

"Wanna go back and check?", suggested Aiden and made a gesture as if to stop the elevator.

"No thanks I value my life. I'd rather work their crime scene than have you working mine."

"What you have no faith in my abilities?", joked Aiden.

In that moment the elevator door opened.

"Which apartment was it again?", asked Danny.

"D... I think", said Aiden searching for the slip of paper where she written down the adress earlier.

"'Does that answer the question of wether or not I have faith in your abilities?", Danny knocked on the door of the apartment. Aiden swatted him on the arm.

"Why did you ask me, when you knew all along?"

"To see if you knew too", asnwered Danny making a step to the side to avoid being hit again.

"Asshole", murmured Aiden and knocked on the door again.

"Seems no one is home", said Danny when they suddenly heard a loud bang from inside the apartment. Simultaneously they drew their guns.

Aiden gestured to Danny to kick down the door, which he did. Aiden entered the living room first.

A picture frame lay broken on the floor. Danny walked into the next room, the kitchen.

The first thing he noticed when he entered the room was the smell. A smell he had grown all to familiar with while working as a CSI, the smell of decaying flesh.

He then noticed the pool of blood on the floor and the legs sticking out from behind the kitchen table. Caught up in examining the scene he missed the fact that there was someone else standing in the kitchen.

"Police! Freeze!", screamed Aiden from behind him, when she saw the person.

It was a small man, about a foot smaller than Aiden.

He lifted his hands in the air. "Please don't shoot!", he said in a scared voice.

Danny took a deep breath.

How the hell had he missed him? He didn't want to think about what could have happend if Aiden hadn't been there.

Danny dropped his gun back in its holster and walked towards the man, careful not to step into the blood on the floor.

He now saw the body that belonged to the legs. The man was white, middle age from what Danny could see. He was laying face down in the blood pool.

But he and Aiden would take care of the crime scene later, first he had to take care of the suspect.

He took out his handcuffs and cuffed the suspect. Better safe than sorry.

Aiden put her gun down and called for backup.

"Who the hell are you?", asked Danny.

"Hey don't I have any rights? What about I can stay silent?", asked the man in a mocking tone, suddenly way more brave now that there were no guns pointing at him.

"Tell you what. You have just been caught redhanded at a murderscene. That doesn't look good for you."

"Oh come on even I can tell he's been dead for some time", the little man said.

Unfortunately Danny had to agree with him. Why would a murderer come back to the scene days after the crime was commited.

_Maybe because he's stupid, Danny. _

If there's something he had learned in all his years as a CSI, it was that criminals did the most stupid things.

Just then two uniformed officers came in and took the man into custody.

"So I think we have found the reason, why Mr Norman didn't show up for school this last few days", said Aiden beginning to process the scene.

"Yep I think it's fair to say he has a really good excuse."

Mac was walking through the city, not really knowing where he was going.

He had fled the lab after leaving Stella in his office and headed out into the city, without a destination in mind.

He was just as confused as Stella. He regretted what he said to her in his office.

Not that he loved her, because that was the truth and some part of him was glad he finally said it out loud. Because he knew under normal circumstances he would have never told her.

No he didn't regret telling her, he regretted that he had shouted at her, that he had hurt her. She didn't deserve that. He never wanted to hurt her.

When Claire died, he had said and done a lot of things he wasn't proud of, but Stella had never lost her patience with him. Not once. She had always been there for him, and now for once she needed him. And what did he do?

He screamed at her telling her she was selfish. He shook his head. Who's the selfish one now?

Mac didn't think he could look her in the eye again.

Even though it killed him, now that he finally realized what he felt for her. He would understand if Stella never wanted to see him or speak to him again.

Maybe if he hadn't screwed up, maybe... maybe what? The little voice in his head asked. It wouldn't have worked between them. They were friends nothing else, that's all Stella saw in him, he was sure of it.

He hadn't even realised where he was going, but when he looked up he noticed he had reached ground zero.

Oh Claire, I wish you were here. He walked to the fence looking down. Why did you leave me?

Flack was sitting in front of the computer trying to find out anything at all about Robert Norman.

But with the lack of results, he was growing more frustrated with every passing second. There had to be something that told him where he came from.

No one could just appear out of nowhere. It wasn't possible, there had to be some trace he just had to find it.

The beeping of the computer told him it had completed his search. He clicked on the result. Nothing. His hand hit his desk. He had to be missing something.

"Detective Flack?", said a voice from behind him.

Flack hadn't even notice someone entering.

"Who wants to know?", he answered grumpy. The man was wearing a black well tailored suit.

Boy, someone has too much money, huh? Thought Flack to himself.

"FBI", answered the man, shoving the badge in Flacks face.

What the hell was going on here?

This week was cursed he knew it. First the Stella doppelganger, then the suspect who appeared out of nowhere and now the FBI.

Could this week get any worse?

Stella was sitting in front of her TV. She thought that maybe it would distract her, but it wasn't working. She couldn't stop thinking about Mac.

She flipped channels again, when suddenly Jennifer Garner in 13 going on 30 appeared on the screen.

Jenna, the girl she was playing, sat outside her house with a pink dollhouse in her lap. Her best friend Matt, whom she loved, was going to marry someone else, because she had screwed up.

Stella felt sad for Jenna, it kind of reminded her of herself at the moment. She really did screw up.

The big difference was that for Jenna it still worked out in the end.

_Too bad there wasn't such a thing as wishing powder in real life. _

She hugged the sofa cushion to her face as a few tears made their way down her face.

There's an other difference between you two, stated the cruel little voice in Stellas head.

Jenna at least tried to make things right, she didn't hide at home. She didn't run away from her problems, she tried to solve them. Not like you.

Stella had to admit the voice had a point, but hey it didn't work out for Jenna now, did it?

It's a movie Stella, but hey if you are not even willing to try... maybe you don't love him as much as you think.

Stella hated to admit it, but again the voice was right.

She loved him damit! She had to try to make it up! She had to! She would never forgive her if she didn't!

_**AN2: Ok at this point I want to thank my best friend, even though she won't read this anyway, I wasn't able to convince her to watch CSI yet.**_

_**We were sitting in Math and she being the movie expert when it comes to chick flicks I asked her for advise what movie to use. Nearly made her get yelled at by the teacher, so be grateful! ;)**_


	12. Chapter 12

  
AN: Wow this really took me long! Sorry! Anyway, hope you all like this cap and haven't forgotton about the story yet ;) Chapter 12 

Stella stood outside Mac's door, her heartbeat was drumming in her ears. She tried counting the beats, but all that she established was that her heart was beating way to fast, for someone who was just standing in front of a door.

She was nervous more nervous than she had ever felt in her entire life, at least that's what it felt like to her at this moment.

What if he didn't want to see her? What if he didn't want to talk to her ever again? What if? God she could drive herself mad with all the what if's.

She had to try, she had to try to make it up to him. She had to, but she couldn't silence the doubts that ran through her head. Reaching up shakily she pressed the bell.

The noise of the bell rang inside his apartment.

The second that passed seemed to her like hours. In the end she had to look at her watch to convince herself that it really was just 5 minutes since she had arrived outside his door.

"Mac, are you there?", her voice sounded weak and scared and she could barely recognize it as her own.

"I have to talk to you. Please open the door!", she had tears in her eyes now, even though she desperately fought them.

But after another 10 minutes and another plea from her, Mac still hadn't opened the door.

What was she supposed to do now? She always had a plan, always knew what to do but that wasn't her anymore. She felt completly lost.

She sat down, her back to his door, hugging her knees to her chest and finally the sadness and despair she had worked so hard at keeping at bay crashed down over her.

Wrenching sobs escaping her throat and tears streamed down her face.

She didn't care that she was in a hallway where anyone could walk by and see her sitting here like this, didn't care who saw her this way. It didn't matter anymore, nothing mattered anymore.

Mac walked back into his apartment building.

He had to talk to Stella, but what was he supposed to say. He couldn't take back what he said. So where did they go from here?

His thoughts were interrupted as he approached his doorstep and spotted Stella, huddled against his door sobbing.

His heart broke at the site and he couldn't help but wonder if it was somehow his fault.

He walked over and knelt down beside her. He wanted nothing more than to take her sadness away and protect her from any hurt.

She didn't give any indication that she knew he was there. When he wrapped his arms around her, she finally looked up.

Her green eyes were wet with still unshed tears, but what troubled him most was what he saw in her eyes. Hurt, loss, fear and disbelief as if she couldn't quiet believe that he was there.

"Mac!" Her whispered voice was so quiet if he hadn't seen her lips move he wouldn't have been sure she had said anything.

In this one word he could hear an unspoken plea, please don't leave me.

He didn't know what to say, millions of possibilities crossed his mind, but he couldn't voice any of them, so he held her close to him, while she cried.

Their fight was still fresh on his mind, but all that mattered at this moment was that he was here for Stella.

Mac carefully lifted her to his feet and unlocked the door. Stella clutched her hands in his shirt as if to prevent him from leaving her alone, while he guided them inside his apartment.

He sat down on the couch pulling her down beside him.

How did it come to this?

After a few minutes Stella sobs subsided and she looked up at him embarassed.

"I'm so sorry, for breaking down on you like this and for everything", she whispered standing and putting as much distance between them as possible.

Mac tried to mask the pain her reaction brought him.

Why was she pulling away? Did he do something wrong? Maybe she was feeling uncomftable around him, because he told her he loved her. Had he lost their friendship by saying that?

"Stella, I'm sorry for what I said to you", Mac looked at her, trying to figure out what she was thinking, but couldn't find a clue.

"No, no you were right, I was acting like a bitch. I shouldn't have pushed you away and-"

Mac interrupted Stella's rant. "I should have been there for you non the less", he stood up moving towards her.

"Still I'm sorry and I would understand if you hate me now. I just...", she looked him straight in the eye.

"I just wanted to tell you, that I'm sorry and I love you."

Stella didn't see the surprised look in Macs face, because at that momentshe turned away from him looking round his apartment.

Her gaze fell on some photographs sitting on his shelf, they were of him and Claire.

Was he really ready to move on?

Mac was surprised to say the least, he had been sure she was mad at him. He had expected almost everything that she would say, except that.

"Stella, I...", Mac was speechless.

Tell her you love her too, you idiot! The little voice in his head was screaming again.

But he didn't, instead his phone started ringing.

"Taylor", he answered his phone. "Yeah we'll be right there, you and Aiden process the scene." He closed his cell.

"Stella", he started again but before he could finish she interrupted him.

"What scene are they processing?"

"Robert Norman is dead, Danny and Aiden found someone at the scene, he's on his way over to the station. I told Danny we would interview him."

"Then let's go", Stella said making her way to the door.

She knew he wanted to say something to her, but she couldn't handle his rejection right now. That he didn't say anything was answer enough for her.

"So what does the almighty FBI want from the NYPD?", asked Flack in a mocking tone.

"Someone used your computer to look at the personal information of Robert Norman", stated the FBI agent, ignoring Flacks tone.

"That would have been me, because Robert Norman is a suspect in a murder inverstigation, so now if you would excuse me, I have work to do", said Flack turning back to the computer.

"Just one more thing, stay away from Robert Norman. Are we clear?", threatened the agent.

Up until this point Flack had been indifferent to the FBI' s interest but the implied threat in the agents voice turned his mood in a heartbeat and even he was surprised at how angry he now felt.

"No we are not clear. He is a suspect in our inverstigation, so we have the right to run background checks on him. And the fact that he seems to have no past makes me kinda suspicious", Flack had stood up as his anger grew and was now eye to eye with the FBI agent who had still to identify himself.

They glared at each other.

"Fine, then I will get back to you with a court order", The agent retorted turning around and leaving before Flack had a chance to respond.

"Yeah do that", muttered Flack "until then I can do what I want."

Stella and Mac entered the interview room. Behind the desk sat the man Danny and Aiden had caught at Normans apartment.

"This is Detective Bonasera, I'm Detective Taylor", introduced Mac as he studied the suspect.

"So what about your name?", Stella asked him.

"Mike Townsend", he glared at her, drumming his fingers on the table.

"So Mike Townsend, wanna tell me why you killed Robert Norman?", asked Stella in a sweet voice, that Mac knew never meant anything good.

"Woah, me?", he asked making a face that was supposed to look inoccent.

"Yep, you buddy", asked Stella glaring at him.

"No no no, I'm just a concerned neighbour."

"And a bad liar", Mac interrupted taking lead in the interview. "So what were you really doing in his apartment?"

"I told you I just wanted to check on him. I haven't seen him in a few days",

"So you broke into his apartment, because you're such a good person?", Mac winced at Stella's sarcastic tone .

"Tell us what happend in the apartment", Mac asked as he sat down opposite him.

"I went in there and I found him, in his kitchen", Townsend said shrugging his shoulder, his tone telling them that it hadn't bothered him at all that he had just found his neighbour dead on the floor.

"So you found him already dead and instead of calling the police, you searched his apartment for money?", asked Stella.

"I wanted to call the police-", he stated.

"Before or after you took his wallet and watch?", Stella leand in closer.

"Ok, ok", he said raising his hands in defeat, " he was dead and I figured he would want me to have something to help me over the traumatic exsperience of finding his body."

"Yeah sure", murmured Stella, making a disgusted face at then man, that nearly made Mac laugh. He decided that this wasn't the right moment though.

"So you stole from a dead guy?", asked Mac.

"Well he didn't need it anymore anyway", Townsend shrugged "and I deserved some credit for being such a good neighbour to him."

"Scumbag", cursed Stella, when they closed the door of the interview behind them.

"Yeah but he didn't kill him", Mac said.

"Norman still could have killed my sister", said Stella a sad look crossing her face.

"We have to wait on the autopsy to see that", he put his hand on her shoulder for reassurence. "We are going to get whoever killed her, I promise."

_**AN2: Ok as usually thanks to my betareader fruitbat00, don't know what I would do without you. And I would be really happy about reviews. Please?**_

**_They don't even have to be good..._**


	13. Chapter 13

_**Chapter 13**_

"Hawks?", Mac called as looking a round as he and Stella entered the morgue. But the pathologist was nowhere to be found.

Stella looked at the freezers and couldn't stop the memories of her last visit flashing into her mind again.

She saw her sister lying before her. She shook her head to make the memories go away, but she couldn't.

The urge to just run away was overwhelming, but she fought it of.

That wasn't a solution and would just make everyone more worried about her.

The news of her twin sister being dead had made the round the lab pretty fast. She didn't know if she imagined it, but everybody kept looking her with pitying eyes and she couldn't stand it.

"Let me guess, you're here about Mr Norman here", the sudden sound of Hawkes voice a few inches behind Stella, made her jump.

_Stop it Stella!_ She scolded herself for reacting this way. _Stop being this jumpy!_

"Yes, what can you tell us?", asked Mac.

"Well, Mr Norman over here was lucky enough to get beat up, before someone put a bullet in his head", said Hawks indicating to the blue eye and the split lip.

"He also sustained a broken rib", he pulled the white sheet back to show them some more bruises on his chest.

Some part of Stella's brain told her that it was excatly what he deserved for killing her sister, but the CSI part of her brain was telling her that she couldn't be sure that it was actually him, who had killed her sister.

"TOD?", asked Stella. Mac looked at her, it was the first time she had spoken since they had entered the morgue and he wanted to make sure she was alright.

"I have to disappoint you, he's been dead for sometime now, so I can't be certained, but my educated guess is that he died roughly around the same time as Aletheia Gerold", Hawkes glanced at Stella worried. Was it wrong to mention her sister?

"I won't break down or run away, just because you're mentioning her name", snapped Stella.

Truth was she wasn't so sure, if she would break down, so instead she concentrated on her anger.

_Why was everyone thinking she was so weak? Maybe because she was_!

Stella pushed that thought away and took a deep breath.

"Here got a present for you", said Hawks ignoring her earlier comment. He held up a bullet. "See what you can make out of it."

"Thanks", Mac answered taking the bullet and looking at it closely.

"Looks like a 22, I think. I'm going to let balistics take a look at it and run it through the database" He looked up at Stella, who indicated to him that he should go ahead.

"I'm sorry for snapping at you", Stella offered after Mac left.

"It's ok", Hawks brushed it off. "We are all under a lot of pressure."

"That isn't an excuse", said Stella.

"Stella stop it! I don't mean this to sound like pity, but if it had been me seeing myself lying there dead, I would done a lot more than just running away and snapping at people."

"Thanks", murmured Stella.

Hawks reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. "It's what friends are there for, to blow of steam."

Stella smiled faintly. "I think I have to go after Mac now, before he organizes a search party."

"Good idea", answered Hawks stepping back.

"I had a little trouble with the FBI", explained Flack, when everyone was gathered in the lab.

"FBI?", Aiden questioned disbelieving.

"Yeah, wanted me to stop researching about Norman. Anyway my point being that it got me a little curious.

Why the hell would the FBI come here because of some nobody. So I made a few calls, called in a few favours.

Robert Norman isn't Robert Noman but Jake Simon. He was going to testify against the Russian mafia, so the FBI put him under witness protection."

There was silence in the room, everyone processing the new information.

"So that's getting us nowhere, because witness protection doesn't make you innoccent", said Stella.

"Yeah but it could mean that we have to put up with the FBI in this investigation", said Mac.

"Speaking of the devil", Danny looked at 2 men and a woman, who made their way over to them.

"Excuse us, but we are searching for Detective Taylor", announced the woman, her hair was pulled back from her face into a ponytail and she was dressed in a smart well tailored grey pinstripe skirt and jacket.

"That would be me", Mac answered stepping forward keeping his tone friendly. No need to make enemies before they found out where they stood. "What can I do for you Agent...-"

"Special Agent O'Conner, these are Special Agents Thies and Morgan and we are going to take over the investigation regarding the death of Robert Norman as well as Aletheia Gerold."

"What? You can't do that!", Stella looked shocked.

Mac put his hand on her arm to calm her down, he knew that it wouldn't do anyone any good if she put up a fight with the agents.

"And what jurisdiction do you have in this case", asked Mac.

"Robert Norman was under witness protection, that makes this a federal case and since Aletheia Gerold's death and Mr Norman's death might be connected, we will be investigating both cases", interupted the male agent who had been introduced as Special Agent Morgan.

Flack was please to be able to put a name to the agent that he had had the run in with earlier, but he still didn't like him.

"We understand that you want to lead the investigation of Robert Norman's death but Aletheia Gerold is our investigation", argued Mac.

"Not anymore, we have a warrant for all the evidence you have collected regarding the investigation", said Special Agent Thies handing over an envelope to Mac.

"They can't just take over the investigation!", Stella was pacing up and down in Mac's office.

"They can't!" Stella felt lost and helpless. She couldn't even help to bring her sisters killer to justice.

"They can't, can they?", asked Aiden looking over to Mac.

"Unfortunately they can", Mac walked behind his desk and sat down heavily in his chair suddenly very tired.

"But there has to be something we can do!", Danny looked at Mac hopefully.

"We can just play nice and hope that they involve us somehow", Mac sighed running his hand through his hair. He was just as frustrated as everyone else.

Flack had stormed off in the hope of finding someone who could give them the case back.

"Detective Bonasera, we would like to ask you a few questions", said Special Agent O'Connor, walking into Mac's office.

"What kind of questions?", asked Stella.

"Aletheia Gerold was your sister, wasn't she?", O'Connor was tapping impatiently with her foot on the floor.

"Yes she was", answered Stella, wondering just where the agent was heading with her questions.

"So we would like to interview you", commented O'Connor as if she was speaking to a three year old. Stella looked questionably.

"Well can't you ask her the questions here?",asked Mac, he wasn't comfortable with the idea of letting Stella go with the FBI agent, when he didn't know what they had in mind.

"It's ok Mac, I can handle", she said following O'Connor, going with her was the last thing she wanted to do, but she wanted to proove Mac that she could handle herself, that she didn't need him to look out for her.

A few minutes later Stella was even more confused and uncomftable.

O'Connor had taken her into one of the interview rooms, and she sure as hell didn't like being on this side of the room.

She felt like she had done somthing wrong. O'Connor and Thies choose that moment to enter the room. Thies sat down oppostite of her, while O'Connor stood behind him. Stella frowned.

_What the hell was going on?_

Stella would have like to just stand up and walk out of this room, telling them that they couldn't treat her like a suspect, but remembering Mac's word that's the only way to get something on her sisters case was to play nice with the FBI, she decided to play along.

"Stella Bonasera, right?" asked Thies her voice friendly. The tone of his voice set off alarm bells inside Stella's head. She had the sudden feeling that she was being set up. Detective Bonasera, she wanted to correct, but bit her lip and just nodded.

"Aletheia was your sister?", asked O'Connor, who's voice was anything but friendly. Stella looked between the two agents. What was this? Good cop, bad cop?

"Yes, she was", said Stella resisting the urge to snap at her.

"So you had a twin sister and you want us to believe that you never knew she exsisted?", asked O'Connor,

"Yes",Stella tried her best to keep her voice neutral.

"We know you grew up in an orphanage, but you know, both of you in the same city, maybe you accidently ran into her shopping or something?", commented Thies.

"No sorry, I think I would remember running into myself while shopping."

"So it's just a coincidence that she was murdered, on your only free day in what, 3 weeks? Oh and what about the fact, that there was no real trace evidence?", asked O'Connor.

"So the fact that there wasn't any evidence is evidence that I killed her?", snapped Stella.

How dare they come in here and accused her of murdering her sister.

"Did you?"; asked O'Connor again.

"What?", asked Stella. This was unbelievable! She felt like she was stuck in a bad movie.

"Everyone would understand-", started Thies.

"No! This is stupid! I would have never killed her!", Stella stood up so fast that her chair fell over.

"So you knew her?", asked O'Connor.

"No!"; Stella's anger grew and she had to fight the urge not to punch one of the two agents in front of her.

Mac would just love it if she was arrested for striking a Federal Officer.

"You know it will be easier if you just tell us the truth", said Thies trying his friendly tone once more.

His voice grated on her nerves making her want to throttle him.

"I'm telling you the fucking truth! I didn't know her and I didn't kill her! This is stupid! What do they teach you in Quantico? How to piss people off? Why would I kill my sister?", Stella was angry to say the least, the fact that she was digging her fingernails into her palm was the only thing that kept her from seriously hurting one of them or maybe both.

"Jealousy", said O'Connor glaring at her while she bending over the table to get closer to Stella, who was pacing up and down in the room.

"Jealousy?", Stella stopped pacing. This was a joke right? She had never heard anything this stupid, she was just waiting for someone to scream april fools.

"Yes, jealousy, she had everything you didn't have. A husband and daughter, a family. Come on you must have hated her!", O'Connor walked over to her.

"She was leading the perfect life, while everything you have is your job. You must have wondered if she was better than you. Why did your parents give you away and not her?"

Even though Stella had asked herself all these questions before, having someone voice them, was 100 times worse. She would have never killed her sister, never!

"Maybe you weren't good enough! So you killed her, so you wouldn't have to look at her and be reminded that you are a failure!", O'Connor was glaring at her, just waiting for her to make a wrong movement.

"Stop it!" Stella couldn't take it anymore. "Yes, of course I asked myself these questions! I still do! Happy now? But I didn't kill her! So stop wasting time! You should be using your time to look for her _real_ killer! But no that would be too difficult wouldn't it?" Stella was walking towards O'Connor, who backed up as far as possible.

"It is so much easier to go around accusing everyone, right? If you can't let me do my job at least do your fucking job!", with that Stella stormed out of the room.

She had stormed out of the lab and ended up in her car , but didn't know where to go.

She didn't want to be alone. She didn't want to talk about what happend in there, she just needed someone there, to feel that she wasn't alone in this.

The first person that came to mind was Mac, but after she told him her feelings for him, she couldn't handle facing him now.

So that option was off. She drove out of the parking lot with no destination in mind.

AN: I hope you all like this chapter! Please tell me what you think! The story is almost over, just wanted to warn you, I think there's just one long chapter left.


	14. Chapter 14

_**Chapter 14**_

Stella had had no destination in mind when she had stormed out of the office, she had just started the car and driven out into the New York traffic.

Now as she studied the street she had parked on she wondered what had brought her to this particular house.

She studied the house, noticing a light in one of the windows and movement behind the drawn curtains.

She figured Aletheia's husband wouldn't be here yet, afterall it was still a crime scene and it had just been cleared that morning.

On the other hand, if it had been her she would have probably wanted to leave the hotel as fast as possible and get back home too.

For a moment she wondered if going in was a good idea, maybe he wanted to be alone.

She remembered the crime scene photos she had seen of the house, she didn't think that anyone should deal with that situation on their own.

She slamed her car door shut and made her way towards the house.

Tomas opened the door with a surprised look on his face.

He obviously hadn't expected any visitors.

"I know it's late Tomas. If you want to be alone I understand", Stella smiled apologetically.

"No it's alright. Come in, but I have to warn you, this place is a mess", he tried to joke.

Stella didn't know how to respond to that, so she just stepped in.

He ushered her into the living room. Stella noticed that he had started cleaning up, there were still pieces of a vase on the floor but he had put the chairs and the desk back in their right places.

"You want any help cleaning up?", asked Stella at loss on what else to say or do.

"Yeah sure", Tomas went over to pick up one of the lilies from the floor.

Stella went over and started picking up the pieces of the vase.

"Every moment I exspect her to come in the door", he said after a while.

Stella looked up from what she was doing. She didn't know how to answer him, or if he even expected a response from her.

"I can't believe that she's dead", he whispered.

Stella found her eyes watering again blurring her vision.

Why would someone put someone else through this?

She just felt so helpless. She couldn't even bring Aletheia's killer to justice anymore.

The only things that had made her feel useful had been taken from her. Her job was what she was good at, she couldn't do anything else.

She wanted to help Tomas and Lilian so badly. But she didn't know how to help them.

God, she didn't even know how to help herself, how the hell was she able to help someone else?

It wasn't until she saw the red liquid dripping of her hand, that she noticed the pain.

She dropped the piece of the vase on which she had cut herself.

"I need to use the bathroom for a second", said Stella walking out of the room without waiting for a reply.

In a way she was grateful for the opportunity to get her emotions back under control.

Back at the crime lab Mac was getting anxious. Over an hour had passed since Agent O'Connor had taken Stella away for interrogation.

What the hell did they want from her?

The other's were still gathered in his office.

Danny was downing one cup of coffe after another, while Flack was pacing from one end of the room to another.

No one could quite shake the feeling of helplessness that had taken a toll on them all when the FBI had taken over the case.

"We can't just sit here and do nothing!", exclaimed Aiden finally standing up out of Mac's visitors chair so fast that it fell over.

Looking at his team Mac reached a decision.

"Ok, they may have taken the evidence but we still know more about the case then they do. Let's get over this again", Mac stood up, happy he had found something to do that would take his mind of of Stella and the FBI,

"Who had a motive to kill Robert Norman and Aletheia Gerold?"

He threw the question out to the others to try and focus there attention onto something other than there annoyance at the FBI.

"No one had a motive to kill them both, that's the problem", Danny drowned the rest of his coffee, while in his mind he was going through all the evidence they had gathered again.

"Are we even sure these two murders are connected?", asked Flack as he finally stopped pacing. "They could be completly unrelated."

"That would be too big of a coincidence", Aiden walked over to a white board and wrote the names Robert Norman and Aletheia Gerold on it.

"And we don't believe in coincidences, we believe in evidence", quoted Danny.

"So do we have any evidence that connects this murders?", asked Mac.

"No just common sense. They knew each other and Robert Norman was a bit obsessed with her", Aiden wrote down the suspects they had in each case.

"So the director of her school and Robert Norman could both have had a motive, but if Robert Norman killed her then who killed him? If we assume the director killed Aletheia, then what motive would he have to kill Robert Norman?" ,asked Flack.

"Maybe Robert Norman was killed for revenge because he killed Aletheia", suggested Mac.

"Which would give the husband a motive", Flack walked over to the board and listed him as a suspect.

"You are forgetting that he has an alibi", Aiden said, taking the pen from Flack, wanting to cross him out again.

"Maybe he took an earlier flight home", argued Flack, reaching for the pen.

"There isn't any evidence that he did", argued Aiden back. It was then that one of the lab techs knocked on Mac's door interupting their argument.

The lab techs was a small woman with dark black hair twisted in a braid.

"I ran the trace on the dust you found on a victims clothes, sir", she said toying with the file in her hand. Everyone could see that she was uncomfortable with everyone looking at her.

"Thank you, Jenny", said Mac trying to force something like a friendly smile on his face.

"It's a special mix of concrete dust, it's not used very often especially not in New York. I looked it up and put in a list of all construction sites where it's currently being used", replied Jenny so fast that they had trouble understanding what she was saying.

"That helps a lot, thank you", said Mac looking at the small nervous looking woman while he took the file from her. Jenny just nodded and made her way back out of the office as fast as possible.

"What's up with her?", asked Flack watching after her.

"I think she's kinda cute", grinned Danny which earned him a smack on the arm of Aiden.

"She's new, but she's good ", murmured Mac looking through the file. "Where was the husbands buisness trip to again?", Mac looked up from the file.

"Chicago", replied Flack, "why?"

"Because I just found our evidence", Mac handed the file over to Aiden.

"This concrete is being used in the renovation the Chicago Midway Airport", exclaimed Aiden surprised.

"Let's say we pay the greiving husband a visit and ask him how traces of dirt from Chicago ended up on his dead wifes body", Mac walked out of the office with everyone else in tow.

Stella had finally found the bathroom.

She let the water run over her hand trying to clean the blood from the cut, but it wouldn't stop bleeding. She looked over to the medicine cabinet on the wall next to the sink and decided to find herself a band-aid.

Oh my god...

Stella looked into the cabinet, but instead of band-aid she pulled out a gun.

Not any gun but a Smith and Wesson 22A. The gun type that most likely killed Robert Norman.

AN: Ok I decided to make it to chapter afterall! I like the number 15 better than 14 ;) Anyway the end is ready, will post it today.


	15. Chapter 15

_**Chapter 15**_

A thousand thoughts were running through Stellas head, as she looked at the gun in her hand.

What did this mean?

A part of her wanted to believe that this was completely unrelated to Robert Norman but she couldn't. She didn't believe in coincidences like this.

Did this mean Tomas killed Robert Norman? What if he did?

Stella shook her head trying to get her thoughts in order.

What if he killed him because he killed Aletheia? Could she really blame him for that?

But why did he lie? Robert Norman had died around the same time Aletheia did, shouldn't he have been out of the city?

"Stella? Are you in there?", asked Tomas stepping in the bathroom.

Damn it Stella, just because you just wanted to clean your hands, couldn't you have locked the bathroom door.

He looked at the gun in her hands, but she couldn't read the expression that came over his face. Guilt? Hurt? Anger? Satisfaction?

"Did you kill him?", Stella didn't know if it was a good idea to just ask him that, but she didn't know what else to do.

"What if I did?", the calm voice alarmed Stella. It didn't show any emotions at all, she had expected anger, but not this. His voice sounded like he was taunting her playing games with her.

"Why? Why did you kill him?", Stella looked around the room looking for a phone or anything else useful.

Should she be scared of him? She reached for her weapon, just in case, but her holster was empty. She had left it at the station after storming out of the interrogation room.

Tomas looked at her as if studying something under a microscope.

"He deserved it", he shrugged, "and just so you know, the gun's not loaded."

"Because he killed Aletheia?", asked Stella, she was beginning to feel uneasy and scared.

Tomas looked at her as if she was joking, before he burst out laughing.

"That wimp? He couldn't have hurt a fly, wasn't even able to throw one punch at me."

Panic was rising in Stella but she tried not to let it show, she tried to think of a way out of this situation, but nothing came to mind.

She was trapped in the bathroom, with Tomas blocking the only way out.

"Did you kill her?", Stella was dreading the answer to that question but she had to know.

"She was looking so scared, a bit like you. She was begging me to let her go. So pathetic!", he spat. "Please, please don't hurt me anymore." He mimicked in a high-pitched voice.

Stella mind was working on overdrive, how could he have done it?

Mixed with her fear another emotion was beginning to build inside of her, anger, anger towards Tomas and towards herself.

How could she have been so stupid? She was a trained CSI, why hadn't she noticed anything? God she had actually felt sorry for him!

He looked at her with an amused look on his face.

"Come on don't look at me that way! You must have hated her! While she had loving parents you had nothing, you would have done the same! You know she was cheating on me with that stupid colleague of hers, I saw them!"

"You are crazy", spat Stella. She couldn't listen to him anymore.

He had killed her sister! The moment his fist connected with her face, knocking her down, she realised she shouldn't have made him angry.

"You know that's exactly what she said! Stupid lying bitches, you are all the same!", He lashed out kicking Stella in the stomach, as she tried to get up.

The second kick connected with her ribs and knocked all the air out of her lungs.

_Get up Stella! You have to get up!_

Stella fought back the pain and struggled to get up, just to get knocked down again.

She tried to catch her breath when she spotted the gun lying on the floor.

Tomas didn't seem to notice her reaching for it.

He went to kick her again, but this time Stella was prepared, before his foot collided with her she used all her strength and threw the gun at him.

Her throw wasn't very strong considering her position, but it was enough to buy her the time she needed to get up and push her way past Tomas and out into the hall.

She tried to remember the layout of the apartment, turning she headed for what she hoped was the front door, but found it locked.

She ran into the living room searching for some kind weapon, but came up empty, she didn't fancy fighting against a man twice her strength with dead flowers from a broken vase. She went to the phone she had seen earlier that night.

Her hands were shaking when she typed in Mac's number. But before he could pick up, Stella felt herself being lifted up of the floor.

She tried to struggle against the grip, but Tomas was stronger than her. She tried to kick him, but that made him even angrier and he shoved her into the wall.

When he let her go Stella slid down the wall, she tried to stand up but she felt dizzy and her sight became blurry.

_You can't give up now Stella, he will kill you! _

She opened her eyes and tried to concentrate to clear her vision, but as she focused on what Tomas held in his hand she wish she hadn't.

Tomas had taken out a pocketknife. Stella could see that the blade was covered in dried blood.

She was going to die just like her sister, killed by the same knife.

_Come on stop being this weak! Fight! _ The voice in Stella's head screamed at her.

She tried gathering her strength and used her legs to knock Tomas's feet from under him.

Unfortunately, he fell on top of her. She screamed when she felt the knife piercing her shoulder.

Tomas got to his feet again pulling the blade out of her shoulder. Reaching down he grabbed her jacket hauling her to her feet.

Stella could feel her warm blood covering her shoulder and arm, when he pulled her up.

"You bitch! I will kill you!", Stella had never been this scared in her life.

The same eyes she had found beautiful when she first met him, now terrified her. She had no doubt in her mind that he would do exactly as he said.

He threw her on the floor, where minutes earlier she had been picking up the pieces of the vase.

_This is going to be a crime scene again..._

She felt pain shooting through her wrist when she tried to stop her fall. She wanted to use her hand, but she couldn't move it.

She used her other hand to pick up one of the pieces of the vase, she knew she had just one chance, one chance or it would her body next to her sister in the morgue tomorrow.

Tomas was bending down towards her with his knife in his hand.

She tried remembering the models Sheldon had in the morgue to demonstrate cause of death.

_This is it Stella, now or never... _

Stella shot up as fast as she could and caught Tomas by surprise as she pushed the piece of vase into his neck.

He screamed pressing his hand to his neck to stop the blood from gushing out of the wound.

Stella saw the knife tumble out of numb fingers, saw his blood mixing with her own on the floor.

_It was over. Everything was over._

She felt cold and the pain she was in was almost unbearable. She knew she should fight off the unconsciousness, but she couldn't.

She tried to concentrate on staying awake but her thoughts kept wandering. She thought of Mac and what he would think finding her body.

Stella didn't want to imagine what that would do to him.

She wasn't sure were the two of them stood now, but she had now doubt in her mind that he couldn't deal with the death of someone close to him again.

In her mind she saw him sitting in his office again like earlier that week, when he had thought he died, how horrible he looked.

She remembered a quote she had heard some time ago.

"_The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and for deeds left undone. She had always thought this to be true."_

But was it?

A part of her couldn't help but wonder if it had been better she never told him about her feelings for him.

Then at least she would know where she stood and maybe it would be easier for him to move on, when she died.

Maybe...

Then she thoughts wandered to Lilian.

_Poor little Lilian, she was probably sleeping in the next room somewhere._

_What was going to happen to her? Her mother dead, murdered by her father and her father killed by her aunt. What a screwed up family, if we can even call us that!_

Her breathing was low and she felt weaker as more blood left her body.

_She's going to grow up not knowing about her family, like me. Maybe it's better she'll never know the truth. _

She did her best to make the blood flow stop, but with her injured wrist it was nearly impossible.

_The truth isn't always how you would like it to be. It's easier to imagine some fairytale story instead of knowing the truth, where husbands kill their wives and parents give there children away for no apparent reason._

With every second that passed Stella had to fight harder not fade into unconsciousness.

She could hear the sirens somewhere far away.

_Stay awake, Stella! Help is on the way! You can't give up! _

Maybe Mac had gotten her call after all. She looked at her brother in law. Then her gaze fell on the family picture on the wall behind him.

The picture had been taken in the backyard. Aletheia was sitting on the garden bench with Lilian in her lap, the sun was glistening in her eyes and hair, she was smiling happily.

Her husband stood behind her, his arms wrapped around her with a proud smile on his face as if to say.

'Look at them, I'm the happiest person on earth with them as my family.'

She managed a weak sarcastic smile

_Family isn't always what it's supposed to be, is it Lilian?_

In that moment she lost her battle, she was just too weak. Her eyes closed and she finally gave in to the dark.

_I hope you have a better life than this._

The End

AN: Ok this is it, the end. I know I'm evil for ending the story this way, but if you like I would write a sequel. I have a few ideas spooking through my mind.

So well, please tell me what you think about the story, what you didn't like or what I could do better.

Thanks to all of you who wrote reviews, you are the reason that I was able to finish the story.

Special thanks to my awesome betareader fruitbat00, I really don't know what I would do without you.


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